Blonde and Red Twin Foxes
by a red penguin
Summary: Fem-Naru/Fem-Kyuubi centric fanfic set in the Naruto universe. A genius at ninjutsu but with a weak body, when Naruko attempted a jutsu which went wrong, her body was duplicated, but her other self was not herself. Follow her and her second self as she grows in the ninja world and rises to the top in her village. Note: Don't own Naruto! Also RnR, feedback is appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

Hello Naruto fanfiction readers and lovers!

I am 'a red penguin' and this is my first time actually writing a non-crossover fic, and my first time actually proving my existence on this site for over a year.

This is a Fem-Naru fic, with a Yuri pairing as the main pairing, so if u no likey, turn roundy and go backy. i believe this is an original idea I will be using in this fic, as I haven't come across one similar to it.

But now read on, see if you enjoy the fic, and please read the A/N at the bottom for a fairly important announcement if you did, and want to contribute to the story!  
_

*Naruko~... You're late for the academy again~...* The usual voice in Naruko's head told her.

With a groan, Naruko lifted her face from the soft comfort of her pillows, drool running from the corner of her mouth and her eyelids drooping over her azure eyes.

"Eh? Natsune?" She mumbled out, shaking her head slightly, her messy mid-back length blonde hair flying about. "What time is it?.."

The voice, now known as Natsune, spoke again, in a more blank tone. *Look at the clock.* She appeared to have the same voice as Naruko.

Lazily, Naruko turned her head to the side and read the time. And froze. "T-t-ten thirty!?"

*Yep, you're an hour and a half late.*

"Why didn't you warn me earlier!?" Naruko yelled as she quickly got undressed and ran into the bathroom of her small apartment, which was strewn with clothes  
and pocky boxes.

*Aah, I like watching you suffer.*

"I thought you hated it when I'm suffering!"

*When I'm not the one causing it.*

"Meanie..." Naruko could practically feel the sadistic grin that was stretching across Natsune's face.

After finishing her shower and getting dressed, she ran out of the apartment, quickly locking the door behind her before sprinting off into the streets, making a beeline for the Ninja Academy. Naruko was wearing A black, tight, thin strapped vest top that ends above her belly button, underneath an unzipped zip-up sleeveless jacket that ends just below the vest, with an orange and black pattern (same pattern as Naruto's Shippuuden jacket), orange thigh length shorts with black stitching and a black lopsided belt. Her hair was arranged into two shoulder length pig tails and had two chin length bangs falling either side of her face.

As she ran past all the various houses and shops, she ignored the blatantly obvious glares she recieved from almost everyone she past, but she could hear Natsune in her head, who was swearing and throwing threats at as many of the people as she could.

Once at the academy, she raced to her classroom and slammed open the sliding door, gaining the attention of everyone in the class, who turned to see a the usual late-coming blonde.

"Iruka... Sensei... sorry I'm... late..." Naruko apoligised, taking deep breaths every second.

The scarred man just sighed. "You missed taijutsu class, again..."

"Waaaahhh..." Naruko whined with anime tears pouring down her face. "But it's not my faauuullt."

"I know. But as a teacher I can't just allow you to turn up late all the time. Stay behind for a while after classes are over."

Naruko nodded slowly. "Yes Sensei..."

She made her way to her seat with a depressed look on her face, the student next to her giving her a sympathetic look.

"You alright?" They asked Naruko, who was now slouched at her desk with her head in her hands.

"Tired..." *Hah hah.* "Shut up"

"Eh? What did I say?"

Naruko, realising she said that out loud, shot up in her seat. "Ah! Nono! Not you! It was to- ahhhh... Someone else..."

The student gave Naruko an odd look.

"Naruko I'm sure you had plenty of time to talk while you were late for classes, but now you're in class, keep it down please." Iruka told her in a stern voice.

"Sorry Sensei."

"Good." He turned back to the class. "Now as I was saying, you will now be practising your basic academy ninjutsu. Today's focus will be water jutsu."

Naruko's face changed from depressed to ecstatic in less than a second. 'Yes! Something I can do!' *Hooraay...* 'Killjoy...'

"So," Iruka continued, "Please follow me to the training area."

The students did so, and when they reached the training area, Iruka had them line up while he stood in front of them. Naruko took a look around the area. Situated in random spots on the training floor were pools of water, each of different sizes. The floor and walls were the usual floor and walls of the academy.

"Ok listen up!" Iruka spoke loudly, gaining the students' attention. "Each of you will perform a single water jutsu, any rank is permitted as long as it is controlled. If you feel as if you can't control it, do not use it!. We will go in alphabetical order. First up, Chouji Akamichi!"

Each of the students stepped up after being called out after the previous had completed their jutsu. Most seemed to use the basic academy water jutsu, aside the few who were more skilled in water jutsu, who did more advanced D-rank jutsus. Naruko, who was one of the last in the list, had resided to sit down in boredom before even half of the students had performed.

'Ne, Natsune.'

*Hmm?*

'Which water jutsu should I use?'

*And you're asking me because?*

'Because I can't deci~de! Help me out!'

*Weell, Iruka-chan is making you stay behind, how about some punishment?*

Naruko's eyes lit up when she understood what Natsune was getting at.

"Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Ah! Good luck Sasuke-san!" Naruko grinned, patting her friend standing next to her on the leg.

Sasuke deadpanned. "Naruko! I keep saying at least call me Sasuke..."

"Whatever. Go kick some butt, ducky!"

What both students didn't pick up were the glares and killing intent directed towards Naruko from most of the girls in the class for being so casual towards Sasuke. However there were two girls who didn't. A white blonde who was stood next to them, who just giggled at the exchange, and a dark haired girl, who was indifferent.

Sasuke performed a simple academy jutsu, as he was not skilled with water techniques, but the praise he recieved from the fangirls was loud enough to blow Naruko's ears off.

"Man, why are they so loud..." She groaned.

"I don't know, but it's getting annoying." Sasuke told her as he sat down next to her.

*You're telling me...*

'Shh!' "Well, you did good considering your chakra affinity is fire."

"Thanks."

More hateful glares were recieved, this time noticed by Naruko, who just giggled at the sound of Natsune blowing raspberries in her head.

"Naruko Uzumaki."

"Finally!"

"Go get 'em." Sasuke told her, lightly punching her in the arm.

"Oh you'll like this." Naruko whispered to him with an evil grin as she walked towards the nearest pool of water.

Que hateful glares.

She made the necessary hand signs for her jutsu and just stood there, confusing Iruka.

"Naruko, is something wrong?"

"Ahem. Iruka-Sensei, it's not working. Can you come and help me please?" She asked in an almost too innocent voice that made Sasuke raise an eyebrow.

"Err, sure, Naruko."

He began to walk over. "What do you think you doing wro-"

He was cut off as Naruko swept her right hand across the water, collecting a large amount of water, and surrounding Iruka within a bubble of water, rendering him immobile.

"Naruko! What is this!?"

"Suirou no jutsu (1), complete." Naruko stated, a cheeky grin covering her features.

The class broke out into a cacophony of noise, some with laughter at what Naruko just did, others talking amongst themselves with awe at how an academy student had used a high C-rank jutsu.

"What is the meaning of this Naruko!?" A fuming Iruka yelled at the small girl holding him captive.

"Weeeell... I recall a certain someone was making me stay behind for a while after classes, and was wondering if they would care to change that?"

"Well of course Naruko."

Naruko wore a toothy grin.

"Let's make it an hour instead."

Her grin fell. "Eh?"

"Would you like that Naruko?"

"Not really..."

"Then how about you get me out of here."

"Or just hold you until you change your mind?" Naruko said with a hopeful smile.

"Do you want to make it two hours?"

"Okaaay letting you go."

She ceased contact with the sphere of water, losing control of the jutsu, the water splattering to the ground around Iruka.

"Thank you." Iruka said, content with his freedom.

"No problem..." Naruko mumbled before shuffling back to her place in the line.

"That was impressive." Sasuke praised as Naruko slumped down beside him.

"Thanks..."

*Well, you screwed that one up*  
_

It was after classes now, all the to-be-ninjas had gone home. All except one Naruko Uzumaki, who, at the moment, was wiping the desks of her classroom, with Iruka observing her from his desk while he filed through student applications for next year's newcomers. After taking a while to think, Iruka decided to speak his mind.

"Naruko."

"Eh?" She looked up from her chore.

"You are a smart student who has almost perfect chakra control and amazing skill with learning and performing jutsu, correct?" He asked looking up from his papers.

"I-I guess?" Naruko said bashfully.

"Then answer this, why do you waste that talent on pranks like the one you pulled on me today. I must admit, it was crafty and you had the mindset of a ninja, but why?"

Naruko stood up straight. "Well part of it was for payback for keeping me behind, but I guess it also gets me some attention."

At that, Iruka's eyes softened. "Naruko, I understand that you're lonely, but-"

"But I'm not lonely! I sit next to a friend in class, then I have you, Sasuke-san and Ino-chan, and Natsune. And~... errmm..."

*Idiot..*

"Natsune? Is she a girl from another class? I've never heard of h-."

He was interrupted this time by a fellow teacher sliding open the door to the classroom.

*Saved!*

"Iruka-san, the Hokage has asked for you." Iruka's plump counterpart informed him, as he noticed the other person in the room. "Oh, hello Naruko-chan!"

"Hiya Shibō(2)-sensei!"

The teacher cringed. "Naruko-chan please stop calling me that..."

"Nope!" Naruko said while grinning, making the teacher cry anime tears.

"Hokage-sama?" Iruka blinked. "Do you know why?"

Recovering from his crying, Shibō subtly indicated towards Naruko, and Iruka nodded in understanding.

"Ok, I'll be right there."

Nodding, the teacher left.

"Naruko that'll have to do for today." He told the girl.

"Yes!" The small girl cried in joy as she jumped over tables towards the door.

"Hold on there." Iruka said while grabbing the collar of her top to stop her.

"Whaaaat?.." She whined.

"Here." He held out a box of strawberry flavoured pocky, to which Naruko went all starry eyed and reached out for.

"Thank you Iruka-sensei!"

"And also," Iruka placed some yen in her spare hand, "buy yourself some more with that, Ayame will be happy to help you."

"Sensei! Why are you giving me this!?" She asked in wonderment.

"Think of this as a treat for doing the best in the class with that water jutsu."

"Thank you sensei!" She yelled, giving him a hug.

"Ah! N-no problem Naruko. Now let go. I need to see Hokage-sama."

"Ok. See you tomorrow!" She turned to leave.

Iruka realised something. "Hold on Naruko!"

"Hmm?"

"You ready for the graduation test tomorrow?"

Naruko stared at him blankly. "Eh?.. Tomorrow?.."

"You forgot didn't you?" Iruka asked, sighing.

Naruko welled up. "I forgot~! Iruka-sensei, I'm going to fail~!"

"Calm down! I'm sure you'll do fine! Remember what I just told you. You're a smart and capable student. Keep that in mind and be confident in yourself. You'll do well, I promise."

*He's right*

Naruko let out a deep breath. "Ok. Thank you once again sensei."

And with that, she ran off.

Iruka smiled kindly after her. "Don't mention it."  
_

"Hokage-sama. I'm here."

"Ah, Iruka." The Third looked up from his paperwork as he entered the room. "You took your time."

"Sorry, I was with Naruko."

"That's all the reason I needed to hear." The Hokage chuckled. "How is she doing lately?"

"Well, I'm not sure where to start Hokage-sama."

"Attendance?"

"It's still very poor, but we both know that she can't help it. With one of the tailed demons inside her she has at least mild insomnia. Not being able to sleep until extremly late doesn't help her when she's waking up."

The Hokage nodded in understanding. "How is her performance in class?"

"All I can say is that she has improved even more with her ninjutsu. And her mindset has become more like a ninja. Just today when I had each student perform a water jutsu, she was able to pull off the highest ranked in the class, a C rank, that's overachiving for a student."

"Oh? Which jutsu was it might I ask?"

"Suirou no jutsu."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. "Surely you need someone to use that on."

"Ahh..." Iruka kept his mouth shut.

"She got you didn't she?" The Hokage deadpanned.

Iruka stiffed before sighing out a 'yes'. "Though I will admit that she was extremely crafty. And skilled, for that matter. She completed the hand seals correctly, fooled me into thinking that it went wrong, and then when I came over, she trapped me. She performed the jutsu a good twenty seconds after finishing the seals."

The Hokage smiled. "It seems we have a bit of a genius in little Naruko."

"I would say so, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage's smile fell. "If only the graduation test focused on ninjutsu."

"Hokage-sama?" Iruka's face held a look of confusion.

"It appears that the council have chosen the graduation test to be focused around taijutsu. I'm sorry, Iruka." The Hokage bowed his head as a physical apology.

"Hokage-sama! There has to be something you can do! You're the Hokage for god's sake!" A distraught Iruka yelled.

"Do you not think that I have tried Iruka!?" The Hokage shouted back, slamming his hands on the desk, scattering sheets. "I am truly sorry, I care for that child just as much as you, but the majority of the council don't want Naruko to become a ninja. There's nothing I can do."

Iruka looked down at the floor, fists clenched and hanging by his sides. The promise he kept to Naruko would be broken. "Dammit..."  
_

The next in Iruka's classroom, all of the class were there, talking about this and that, how they did or how they think they were going to do in the exam. All was disrupted, however, when Naruko burst into the room, late once again.

"I made it!" She scanned the class, looking for a friendly face. "Ino! When's my slot!?"

"Naru-chan you barely made it." Ino told her placing her hands on her hips. "You're after Sasuke."

After scanning the room, Naruko looked back at Ino. "Where is he?"

"He's doing the test. I did say you barely made it."

"How long will he be?"

"Not that long." A voice behind her spoke after the sound of door sliding stopped.

Naruko's face lit up and she spun around and looked up at Sasuke, who was holding a hitai-ate, not registering the sympathetic look on his face. "Sasuke! How did you do? Was it easy? Hard? What ninjutsu was it? Was it wa-?"

"Naruko the test is taijutsu!" Sasuke blurted out.

Naruko froze, her eyes wide. "Wh-Wha..."

"I'm sorry Naruko." Sasuke said, looking down.

Naruko didn't hear him, she just stood staring blankly ahead with wide eyes, before slumping to her knees and looking at the floor. The room was quiet at this point, almost everyone feeling some amount of sympathy for the girl. The girl who's physical strength equaled that of a child who had just joined the academy, a mere six year old.

*Naruko...* Even Natsune was sympathetic.

"I'm going to fail. I can't do it. I'm not going to be a ninja..."

Sasuke kneeled down infront of her. "Naruko listen to me, you can only do your best, despite how little it is in this particular type. If you do your best you can be proud. Just go and do you best.

Sniffing, Naruko nodded. "Right. Just do my best."

She stood up. "Thank you Sasuke."

"Can Naruko Uzumaki please make her way to the examination room!"

With one last encouraging glance from Sasuke, she left the classroom and headed for the classroom that was holding the exam. Once she reached it, she slowly opened the door and examined her surroundings. Either side of the room were punching dummies that seemes to have an upgrade of sorts, as they had attached joints. Looking directly down the middle of the room she saw Iruka and another teacher that she didn't recognise who had light pink hair. They were sat at a table with rows upon rows of hitai-ates placed on it.

"Naruko." Iruka greeted her with a small nod.

Naruko returned the greeting. "Iruka-sensei."

Iruka gestured to the man sitting beside him. " This is Mizuki. He'll be the second proctor for this exam."

"Mizuki-sensei." Naruko bowed slightly.

"Now... I'm sure you've been told about what this exam entails." Iruka inquired, sadness in his formal voice.

"Yes, sensei. But I'll try my best."

Iruka smiled sadly. "That's good to hear Naruko. You test is to fight these three dummies with taijutsu only, you must knock at least two of their heads off to pass. You may begin when ready. That is when the dummies will activate."

Naruko nodded. "I'm as ready as I can be."

"Alright, Mizuki, please activate the dummies."

As Mizuki did so, Naruko dropped into a sloppy academy stance. However, the first dummie approached faster than she expected, it's right arm raised and ready to strike with a straight punch. All Naruko could do was cross her arms to make a flimsy block to protect herself, but it was not enough. The fist of the dummy threw her out of her sloppy stance and she fell back, landing on the ground. The dummy didn't wait though, and proceeded to attack the girl, driving a fist into her stomach, causing her to cough up spit.

Iruka looked away. "Mizuki stop the dummy."

The second proctor did so, forcing the dummy to freeze mid-punch. Looking through a crack in the door, a pair of eyes softened before disappearing from view.

Iruka left his seat to tend to the downed girl. He place a hand on her back and helped her sit up, but she avoided his gaze.

"I failed didn't I?.."

Iruka looked away once again, and the silence was all Naruko needed for an answer. She gave a sad laugh.

"It's to be expected, I'm weak with taijutsu." She removed herself from Iruka's grip and headed for the door, clutching her stomach where she was hit. As she opened the door, Iruka spoke up.

"Naruko. I'm sorry."

"It's ok, Iruka-sensei. It's not your fault."

With that, Naruko left the room.

Back at the classroom, the chatter had returned to how it had been before Naruko's arrival, all except for three people, one of which just opened the door to re-enter the classroom, attracting the other two people's attention. Ino and the person who sat next to Naruko approached Sasuke, who had been to check on how was Naruko handling the test. When they reached him, all he could do was shake his head, causing theirs to droop. Not so long after the door slid open again, and they looked to find it was Naruko, a empty look in her eyes. She took a few slow steps forward until Ino got in the way and pulled her into a comforting hug. Naruko barely registered the embrace, as tears began to leak out of her seemingly dead eyes.  
_

Naruko sat on the ground floor roof of the academy building, her depressed eyes staring down at the event that was happening below. Academy graduates being greeted by their parents as they all celebrated their gradution to Genin together. But she just sat there, ignoring the whispers shared between the adults.

'Hey, it's that girl.'

'She's the only one who didn't pass.'

'That's a good thing, she shouldn't become a shinobi. Because she's-'

'Hey! We're not allowed to talk about that!'

Naruko didn't listen to them.

*I'm sorry, this is my fault*

'Natsune non of this is your fault. You weren't in control of your actions that night.'

*But everyone thinks that you're the Kyuubi because I'm sealed inside of you. My guess is that they made the test a taijutsu one so that you couldn't pass*

'It's their fault for being so blind. So what if I have the you sealed inside of me. The big bad scary Kyuubi.  
No offence.'

*Non taken*

'They don't understand that I can conta-'

"Naruko-kun?"

Naruko was pulled from her chat with Natsune when a figure stood next to her. Looking up, she found Mizuki staring down at her, a kind smile across his features.

"Mizuki-sensei."

"How about me and you talk Naruko?" He gestured for her to come with him.

Naruko nodded, standing up and following him out of the academy campus.

"So, Naruko-kun. You didn't do so well on your exam, hmm?" He asked as they continued to walk down a random street.

Naruko grimaced. "Why are you reminding me?.."

"How about a second try? A last chance to graduate?"

Naruko perked up. "There's a second exam!?"

"Indeed there is. Would you like to be given another chance to graduate?"

*Be careful. I don't trust this man* Natsune warned Naruko.

'I don't care! I want this chance!'

"Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes! I want to try!"

Mizuki chuckled at her enthusiasm, stopped walking and crouched infront of Naruko. "Then I'll tell you what you need to do. Inside the Hokage tower there's a room that hold all scrolls to ever Hidden Leaf jutsu. You need to infiltrate the tower and take the forbidden scroll."

"What does it look like?"

"Don't worry, it's easy to find. It's one of the big ones and it has a large label on it. Think you can do that?"

"That's all I need to do to become a Genin?"

Mizuki nodded. "That and learn a single jutsu from the scroll."

"I'll do it!"  
_

*I'll say this again, I don't trust that man.*

'And I'll say this again. I don't care." Naruko told her tenant as she stood, at night, on a roof opposite the window she would be using to infiltrate the Hokage tower.

*Urgh, fine! Not my fault if he attacks you~*

'Whatever.' Naruko jumped of the roof and latched onto the window, managing to pull herself up and into the building. 'Infiltration complete!'

"Naruko? Is that you?"

Naruko deadpanned. 'That's the old man~! Wait, I know what to do!'

She spun to face the Hokage.

"Naruko what are you doing here so la-?"

"Kifu(3) no jutsu!" Naruko performed a single hand seal, and with that, her body grew taller and her chest and butt became very well proportioned sizes, and her clothes seemingly vanished.

The Hokage was stood for only a moment until the his brain processed the sight in front of him, to which he then flew back, blood spewing from his nose, unconscious.

Back to normal and with clothes on, and with Natsune laughing her lungs out in her head, Naruko faced in the direction of the scroll room before running forward. "Onwards!"  
_

Later that night:

"Okay, I got this jutsu down easily!"

Naruko was sat by an abandoned wooden hut in the middle of a forest just outside Konoha's walls, happily reading throught the scroll and trying out any of the jutsu that she found interesting. She'd just completed the 'Kage Bushin'.

*Well considering your immense amount of chakra thanks to me, you could easily pull off the 'Taju Kage Bushin no jutsu' as well, never mind just the 'Kage Bushin'*

"You have a point." Naruko spoke aloud as she scanned through the scroll. "Hey, what about this one?"

*Hmm? Chi(4) Bushin? That would be effective but painful, you willing?"

"How painful?"

*A slight twinge, is all. You should be fine*

"Right. I'll try it then." Naruko made the necessary hand seals and waited.

After a few seconds of waiting, Naruko grew bored.

"Nothing's happe-" She stopped mid-sentence when something stabbed her in her forehead. Holding in a scream, she reached to pull it out, except all she met was air. The non existent blade sank deeper and deeper into her mind, and Naruko could longer hold in the scream of pain as she gripped her head.

*Naruko! Naruko!*

"Natsu-ne... Wha-what's happening?"

*I d... know! Thi... n't mea... ppen!*

"I can't hear you! Natsune!" She continued to call her name until the blade started moving from her head, dragging itself through her body, causing her to scream once again as she felt like she was being cut in half. Once the blade reached her gut, however, she lost conciousness.

It wasn't too long until she began to gain conciousness, hearing someone calling her name.

"Nar...o! N...uko! Naruko!"

"Natsune? You're alright?" Naruko asked, blinking her eyes as she tried to open her heavy lids.

"Oh thank god! I was worried!"

"Natsune. You're back."

"Actually I'm right here." Naruko heard Natsune say when she felt a hand stroke her forehead.

"Eh?" Natsune's eyes shot open to see herself staring right back at her, as she realised she was resting on a pair of thighs. "Whawhawha~!? Why are you me!?" She yelled a bewildered look on her face.

"I'm not you per say, just in the body of the Chi Bushin you created, but it seems I have influenced the clone's appearance somewhat."

When Natsune said that, Naruko observed her features, and noticed that Natsune's hair and eye colour were both blood red, and she had a single elongated fang emerging from her mouth.

"Natsune, you're cute."

"But I have the same appearance as you."

"Exactly my point." Naruko said cheekily. "And I never knew I had such comfy thighs." She added, nuzzling into Natsune's thighs.

"This is nice and all, but you girlies can have you lesbian heart to heart in the afterlife!" A voice that Naruko had heard recently stated from the trees.

"That voice..."

"I did say you shouldn't trust him~." Natsune sang nonchalantly.

"Mizuki-sensei?"

"Hello fox brat. And what appears to be your twin sister." The man said, appearing on a branch on a nearby tree.

Natsune lay Naruko down gently on the ground so she could regain her energy. "So, as I recall Pinky, you plan to kill Naruko?"

Mizuki growled at the nickname. "Indeed. This is a chance to rid this village of that damned fox! And after that I'm going to take that scroll! And if you're going to stand in my way, I'll just kill you too!"

"Pathetic, do you know who I am?"

"No, and I don't care either! Now die!" Mizuki drew five kunai from his pouch and threw them at Natsune, who just raised her left hand, expecting the kunai to diverge off-course.

She only had a few seconds to react as the first kunai impacted the palm of her hand, managing to move her head enough to avoid being impaled in the head, the kunai only forming a deep cut in the left side of her forehead. She wasn't able to avoid the other kunai, which impacted her in her right thigh, her stomach and right arm.

"Natsune!" Naruko cried, now able to sit up.

"Lucky escape from instant death you had there brat!" Mizuki drew one last kunai and prepared to throw it. "Now... Wait, are you smiling!?"

True enough, a large grin was stretched across Natsune's face as she shook with a low chuckle, even though she was bleeding profusely from her wounds, blood from the cut on her forehead running down her face.

"It seems that this body prevents me from using some of my powers." Her eyes widened maniacally and her grinned grew wider as her teeth began to show, her larger canines evident. "I guess that make it more interesting, no?"

Mizuki's own eyes widened in shock when she moved her injured arm so that she could pull the kunai from her palm, and then continued to remove all three remaining kunai without even flinching. His worry grew when he saw the holes made by the kunai close up as if they were never there in the first place.

"No." Mizuki shook his head. "You can't be! Extreme regeneration speed, red hair, red maniacle eyes, large canines! Kyuubi!"

"Correct." Natsune's grin morphed into an evil one. "And unlike my former vessel..."

At this point Mizuki threw a kunai, and it flew through Natsune's head, which turned out to be part of an after-image.

"... my physical strength is pretty good." Natsune said, reappering behind the Konoha traitor, placing a strong kick to the small of his back, causing him to grunt as he fell from his perch on the tree, landing on the ground next to Naruko, who was now up on her feet and making hand seals.

"Mizu shūshuku(5) no jutsu." Naruko uttered as she raised her hands infront of her, and after a few seconds, water began to make it's way towards her from the surrounding plant life, forming a ring around her.

She then made a different set of hand seals, uttered the words 'Suirou no jutsu' and proceeded to trap a still dazed Mizuki in a watery prison.

"You..." Mizuki glared at Natsune. "How you get out fox?"

Natsune shrugged. "I'll be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure."

Mizuki growled again, and struggled against his watery bonds. "Let me out of here!"

Natsune caught Naruko's eyes and winked, all the instruction needed to let her know that she could release the jutsu, and Naruko did so, letting Mizuki fall to the ground, which he would have done if it was not for Natsune's fist meeting his face halfway, sending him flying into the abandoned cabin, destroying the small structure and rendering Mizuki unconscious.

Natsune turned to Naruko, who had once again fallen to the ground, chakra exhaustion getting the better of her. "How are you doing?"

Naruko sent her a disbelieving look. "You're asking me... after taking kunai to your whole body?"

"You know as well as I that we heal quickly. Now get some rest."

Naruko nodded before losing consciousness, her head once again resting on Natsune's thighs. They remained like that for a good few minutes, Natsune just calmly stroking Naruko's head, until a voice broke the silence.

"Naruko! Naruko!"

"Ah, Iruka-chan! Over here!"

It didn't take too long for the scarred teacher to burst through the undergrowth and see Naruko resting on the lap of a girl the same size as her, and who was also wearing the same clothes as her.

"You don't need to hesitate Iruka-chan. I won't bite." Natsune turn her head towards him, flashing a fang at him. "Maybe..."

It wasn't too long before Iruka noticed the red eyes and hair, and he instantly realised who was before him.

"K-Kyuubi..."

"I prefer the name Natsune, Iruka-chan."

"Natsune... Wait... Naruko mentioned you yesterday! She said you were a friend of hers! You've been brainwashing her!"

"As if. I wouldn't be able to harm this girl even if I wanted to. I've seen her suffer since day one. My heart has softened for this one." She told Iruka, gazing down at the sleeping girl. "She is merely tired."

"From what exactly?"

Natsune pointed towards the collapsed cabin, Iruka followin her gaze and spotting Mizuki amongst the pile of wooden logs.

"M-Mizuki?" Iruka forced out, confused.

"That man there tricked Naruko into stealing the scroll, which I assume is the initial reason you came to find Naruko, no?" Iruka nodded. "Naruko came here with the scroll and learnt the first jutsu in that scroll, Kage Bushin."

"That doesn't explain why you're here." Iruka mentioned warily.

"Let me finish Iruka-chan. After that she found a jutsu called Chi Bushin, a jutsu that uses half of the user's chakra to create a exact blood copy of themselves that are tougher than Kage Bushin. The most accurate assumption I can give for my being here is that Naruko was too low on chakra to use just her own, so instead my chakra was placed in the clone, taking my mind with it. Though I assure you. I am of no danger to you, you care for Naruko and have cared for her. I like you. Also the reason for my safeness is that not all of my chakra is in this body, so I'm not at my full strength. This added with the fact that I am in a child's body means I am far weaker than my original form. Lastly, since I now embody this body, it is no longer a simple clone, but a living organism that will grow and nurture in the same way Naruko will, as it has the same DNA. Do you understand all of what I just said."

Iruka looked at her blankly, still taking in all of the information. "I-I~... yes."

Natsune grinned, moved Naruko so she was giving her a piggy back and began to walk to Konoha. "Good. Now can you take me to the Hokage to discuss Genin graduation? I'm sure defeating a chuunin is worth a promotion of sorts."

"What about you being the Kyuubi?"

Natsune stopped walking. "I guess we could mention that."

She continued walking, now with a bewildered and sweatdropping Iruka tailing behind her.  
_

"So let me get this straight..." The Hokage grumbled, rubbing his temples after hearing a repeat of what Natsune said to Iruka.

They were now in the Hokage's office, Naruko and Natsune and a recovered Naruko standing side by side with Iruka next to the Hokage.

"Mizuki, who is now is custody, tricked Naruko into stealing the scroll, which she then used to learn new jutsu, one of which brought out Kyuubi's, or rather, Natsune's chakra and placed it inside a Chi Bushin, granting her partial freedom from the seal, then you both worked together perfectly in order to beat the living daylights out of Mizuki." The Third summarised.

"In a nutshell." Natsune said, Naruko nodding beside her.

"Well, I have enough trust in Naruko to say that if she trusts you, I feel as though I can too. I'm sure the same can be said for Iruka." The man in question stiffened. "As for your promotional request, I'm sure working together to overcome a rogue chuunin is ample enough of an excuse to be given the title of Genin, not including the fact that you returned the forbidden scroll."

At this, Naruko's face lit up and she wrapped her arms around Natsune and jumped up and down, squealing like a young child.

"Now," the Hokage reached into a drawer in his desk and took out two hitae-ates and handed one to both Naruko and Natsune.

Naruko took hers without a moment of hesitation, but Natsune eyed hers.

"Sandaime, I didn't request for a position."

"You and Naruko work well together, that will be a valuable asset. Take it."

Natsune hesitated for a moment, before tieing it around her neck just like Naruko had, then bowed. "Thank you for allowing me to be with Naruko, Hokage-sama."

"Think nothing of it Natsune." The old shinobi grinned. "All we need now are the photos."  
_

The Hokage and Iruka stood together hunched over in a small room, seemingly looking at a picture.

"Well, I must say it'll be an original picture for their shinobi file." The Third said with a chuckle.

"I guess you could say that Hokage-sama..." Iruka told his superior while sweatdropping. "It certainly is different."

The picture showed the right side of Naruko's face, who held a graceful open eyed grin, and the left side of Natsune's face, who wore a smirk that reached up the left side of her face. Beside the fact that they shared the picture, their features lined up perfectly, the line of their lips making contact and their eyes looked like they should be on the same person.

"Yep," Iruka said again, "certainly interesting..."  
_

(1) Name: Suirou no jutsu (Water prison jutsu

Classification: Ninjutsu, supplementary

Naruko forms the necessary hand seals which causes the water to form around the target into a spherical prison which only allows for limited movement. The ninja must keep their body touching the water prison to maintain its existence. If the contact is broken, the water falls away and their target is released. When combined with a bunshin technique, the ninja can imprison their target but still allow for a clone to attack others nearby.

(2) Shibō-fatty

(3) Name: Kifu no jutsu (Endowment jutsu)

Classification: Henge

Similar to Naruto's sexy jutsu, except her body becomes the perfect hourglass figure, which she uses to tease or seduce people. Very effective on perverts.

(4) Name: Mizu shūshuku no jutsu (Water contraction jutsu)

Classification: Ninjutsu, supplementary

The user is able to draw water out of any surrounding plant life and utilise it in their jutsu. Advanced users of this technique can draw out water from any source, including other humans.

Right! There's the first chapter for you, I hope it was satisfactory. This is the opening chapter to what, I hope, will be a successful Fem-Naru series that I originally came up with two days prior to the writing of this first chapter, the planning and character and jutsu files only a day beforehand.

And so, I bring myself to this, the big important bit:

(ATTENTION)-I will be excepting one and only one OC to be in this story! They will be on the same team as Naruko and Natsune and whoever else i decide to put there (Probably going to keep Sasuke) to make a five man squad (1 Jounin and 4 Genin), and they will be one of Naruko's original friends. If you feel like replying, I have put in what I need to know about your person below. Now remember this, I will not only be choosing the best OC due to amount of detail, but also for how well I think they would integrate with the team, but that doesn't mean you can barely write anything. There's no need to add an age, as they will be the same age as the rest of the graduates.

Name: (The first and last, if you do it the japanese way then warn me, because I write names as 1st then surname. Also, make it flow well)

Nickname: (If you can think of something besides (shortened name)-chan/kun and instead something affiliated with their name but is not their name, then that is a big 1up in my eyes. Though they AREN'T necessary!)

Blood type:

Appearance: (Eye colour, hair colour/style, size (if female, a little info on chest size, etc) any defining features (eg. Scars), skin color)

Clothes: (make sure they're not the complete opposite of their personality, for example, if they're emo, don't give them bright pink tops with smiley faces)

Personality:

Intelligence: (IQ)

Physical Strength: (Great, good, poor, pathetic)

Love interest: (Anyone except Naruko/Natsune/Ino/Sasuke as they are taken, but if you do really want to pick one of them, the love would be unrequited)

Chakra type: (colour/element affinities)

Backstory: (little bit of a backstory for your OC always helps me out)

Jutsu speciality: (Taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu)

List of Jutsus: (Kekkei genkai allowed, just don't have it op. make sure jutsus match the character's chakra affinity, so if it's water, no fire jutsu)(Include what they know (short for now) and what they will learn)  
(Layout of jutsu should be like this:  
Name:  
Classification: (nin, gen, tai. Offensive/defensive/both)  
An explanation of what it does.)

And also, include what they would say for the likes/dislikes, dreams and hobbies thing

Send submissions via PM, except for the anonimous reviewers, you can post yours as a review. Please do not make you OC perfect, as that is no fun to write and also boring. And lastly, even if you doubt yours'll be accepted, please submit them, as they're always great to read in my opinion.

Anyways, get sending those OCs in! This is a red penguin saying goodbye!


	2. Chapter 2

Hello again guys, this is the chapter that I had been really looking forward to write, firstly because I get to show a cool new jutsu that Naruko and Natsune will be able to use, and secondly because I have chosen the OC that will be used in this story, and they will appear later on. And I will say this now, I received some great submissions, so don't feel down, it was a hard decision, but something about the one I chose gave my creative mind a boost. I hope you don't stop reading this story now ( _ ; )

Also, I will add Naruko and Natsune's character files at the bottom of this page, in case any of you were interested, and also the OC's.

But without further adiue, here's the chapter.

* * *

"Hey, Naruko, get up!"

"Natsune?" Naruko shuffled in her bed, stifling a yawn as she stretched her arms out.

However, she did not expect one of her hands to meet something firm yet malleable as well. She opened an eye to find Natsune on her hands and knees above her, and her left hand groping Natsune's right breast, while the red-head just smirked.

"Well, you're daring this morning Naruko."

Quickly retracting her hand, Naruko blushed and blurted out a hasty apology, but stopped when she noticed a change about her foxy twin. "Ah! The change suits you, Natsune."

Natsune's style had changed, but only slightly. Instead of the bangs of hair either side of her head, she had a fringe that swept slightly over right eye. Her clothes were basically the same, except the colours were switched and she had fishnet shorts running out below her black and orange ones, that ended above her knees.

"Thanks I guess, but let's continue." With that, Natsune moved to lick Naruko's chin-line, only for Naruko to grip the side of her head and throw her off the bed, Natsune shouting in pain when she hit the floor.

Normally she wouldn't have been able to do so, since the incident with Mizuki two days prior of today, Natsune had given Naruko a quick crash course in the basics of taijutsu, so she had learned how to control her momentum and gained a little strength.

"It seems being in a kid's body has also made you more childlike...I'm going back to sleep." Naruko told the crazy girl as she pulled the covers over her head.

Natsune's head popped up from the side of the bed, flailing her arms. "Wait, you can't! We have to be at the academy in half an hour for the Genin team selections!"

At hearing this Naruko shoved the covers away from her face and looked straight at Natsune. "You woke me up early for once!?"

"Well it's not like we can miss this, is it!?"

"Oh yeah, good point."

"Whatever, now get ready!" Natsune ordered her former jailer, tipping the bed so that the blonde rolled out and onto the floor.

Picking herself up, Naruko ran to the bathroom. "Yes ma'am!"

* * *

It was nearly half nine in the morning now, the scheduled time for the Genin team selections, and most of the new Genin had arrived, including Sasuke and Ino, who sat by each other at one of the desks. While everyone around them chatting ecstatically about who they would like on their team, the two were just sat in silence, until Sasuke broke it.

"You know, this class doesn't seem the same without Naruko in it, somewhat."

It was clear that the lack of Naruko was affecting both of them, and a sad smile grew on Ino's face.

"Yeah, but she'd probably be late anyway."

At the exact moment after those words escaped her lips, the door to the classroom was slammed open, and two girls barged into the room, one of which was Naruko, the other a red-head that looked just like her, but whom they had never seen before. The whole class stopped at the sudden intrusion of the room, and Sasuke and Ino stared at Naruko, jaws dropped.

Naruko thrust her right fist into the hair. "On time!" She turned to the unknown red haired girl next to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her back and forth, much the her protests. "We made it!"

"Naruko made it on time!?" Sasuke yelled.

"Naruko's even here!?" Ino followed up with a cry just as loud.

Naruko stopped shaking the other girl and turned to where she heard her friends' voices and waved. "Sasuke-san! Ino-chan!"

Sasuke facefaulted at the '-san' suffix, Ino just kept her amazed look as Naruko and the other girl headed towards them.

Finally breaking out of her stupor, Ino asked the question that the whole class was wondering. "Naruko, why are you here? Only graduates are meant to be here. And who's this girl? She looks just like you." She added at the end, pointing at the red-head.

"Well, through some haphazard way which, to be honest, I don't fully understand, me and Natsune were promoted to Genin. This is Natsune by the way." She indicated to Natsune after explaining why they were here, who just gave a grin and a small wave.

"I didn't really follow that, but I'm just glad you're here!" Ino threw a friendly arm around Naruko.

"Who is Natsune exactly?" Sasuke inquired, eyeing the girl. "I've never seen her around here."

"Well you see..." Naruko paused, giving Natsune a side glance, to which she replied with a shrug. "Aaaahhh... She~'s my transfer student cousin from another place?"

Both Ino and Sasuke looked at her blankly, making Naruko sweat slightly, while Natsune coughed to hold back a laugh. Eventually their looks subsided.

"Ok whatever." Sasuke said. "I'm sure she's not dangerous."

Naruko stiffened. "Ah, yeah..."

Natsune pushed past Naruko and moved towards Sasuke, their faces almost touching. "You're cuter in person, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke held back a small blush and look past the red-head and at Naruko. "You told her about me?.."

Naruko began to sweat again. "Ah...pff...well, erm... you may have come up once or twice?"

"Right..."

Before anything else could be said, Iruka walked through the door.

"Alright guys! Settle down and keep quiet!" The scarred man shouted to the class, clapping his hands, gaining most of the class' attention, and the others just followed suit when they saw people move.

Naruko sat down at the same desk Ino and Sasuke were sat at, with the two either side of her, and Natsune behind her, who was scaring the Genin next to her.

Iruka clapped his hands once more. "Ok, starting today all of you are real shinobi, but, you are still Genin. Your long winded journey has only just begun. From now on, you complete real shinobi missions to help the village, so today you will all be placed in three man teams, each with a Jounin sensei. Follow their orders to complete your missions successfully." He pulled a clipboard hold some sheets from behind his back. "I will now read out the teams. Don't be surprised if you end up in a different team to your friends. They have been chosen in a way that would benefit each team." This received many unhappy cries and whines.

Naruko turned round to Natsune as Iruka started reading out the names for each team, a happy smile on her face. "We're guaranteed to be on the same team because of what the old man said!"

Natsune grinned and nodded in reply.

Naruko then turned to Sasuke. "Ne, Sasuke. Do you think we'll be on the same team?"

The raven haired boy leaned back and shrugged. "Who knows. As Iruka-sensei said, we can't get our hopes up."

"You're such a downer..." Naruko told him with a flat voice.

"... Team Seven: Naruko Uzumaki, Natsune Kurama, Sasuke Uchiha-"

Naruko shot from her seat in glee as she punched the air. "Yes! I'm with Sasuke and Natsune!"

She began a small victory dance while waving two small flags that appeared out of nowhere in her hand.

Natsune also showed a reaction, leaping into a sitting position on Sasuke's shoulders and holding his head, pressing her small but noticable chest into the back of his head, causing a small trail of blood to run from his nose. "Hey, we're on the same team cutey."

She ignored the glares from the fangirls.

Iruka cleared his throat to get the girls', and their new teammate's, attention. "I hadn't finished Naruko, your team will have four Genin in it."

"Eeh, why's that?" Naruko asked.

"This is due to the new face that suddenly appeared..."

All eyes swivelled to Natsune, who gave everyone the peace sign while giving a confident smirk, still sitting on Sasuke's shoulders.

Iruka shook his head. "Anyway, the final Genin in Team Seven is Kuro Tsukuba."

"Oh? Kuro-chan?" Naruko looked around the class, looking for the the girl she knew only slightly, catching her pitch black eyes on the other side of the room. Kuro was a short and skinny girl, with pitch black irises and a pale complexion, marred by a black burn scar on the right side of her face, which also seemed to run the entire right side of her body, long white hair that, as Naruko last recalled, reached her knees, and was tied by a bow a few inches from the bottom. She had a messy fringe that reached her nose. Her physical shape matched that of a lolita. Kuro gave Naruko a short wave, a blank, if not marginally stern look on her face.

As Naruko returned to facing the front, Ino hugged her from the side. "Naru-cha~n I'm not on your team~..." She cried.

"It's ok Ino. I'm sure your team will be just as good." Naruko said, trying to comfort the platinum blonde, patting her on the back.

Ino sniffed, and retracted from Naruko. "I guess you could be right, as long as I'm not with my dad's friends' sons, lardy and lazy."

"... Team Ten: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akamichi."

"Pfft. What was that you said?" Natsune said patronisingly from atop Sasuke, as Ino slammed her head into the desk, cursing her life.

"Ah, Ino-chan!" Naruko proceeded to fuss over her female friend until all the teams were read out.

"Right!" Iruka placed the clipboard on the desk behind him. "There'll be a fifteen minute interval. Come back after that to meet your Jounin sensei."

* * *

Kakashi Hatake, a man dressed in standard shinobi gear and a Jounin vest, with a mask over his face and his hitae-ate slanted on his head, covering his left eye, was walking away from the Hokage tower, recalling his one-to-one meeting with the Hokage he'd turned up late to. He'd had to save a black cat from a tree then walk in the opposite direction from it, which happened to be away from the place he was meant to be, and then he had to help an old lady across the street.

Of course, the Old kage poo-pooed his excuses. Kakash never understood why everyone thought he was lying. He was just a kind and superstitious person.

Setting that thought aside, he though back to what they discussed.

*Flashbackish*

"Kakashi," the Hokage stood from his desk and faced the window, "I understand that you are not eager to take a Genin squad, but I can only say that you are the only one I can trust. There's someone extremely capable within that team."

Kakashi nodded lazily. "I know, the Uchiha, right?"

"Wrong."

This caught Kakashi's attention. "Then who?"

The Hokage turned to face him. "The Kyuubi."

Kakashi frowned. "Hokage-sama I thought you yourself disapproved of called Naruko that."

"No. I am talking about Naruko. Naruko may hold some of Kyuubi's chakra, but she holds the Kyuubi no longer. The Kyuubi is free, and also your pupil."

*End flashback*

Kakashi thought to what the Hokage told him after that.

'I assure you, Kakashi, she is no longer a threat to Konoha.'

Kakashi frowned as he reached the academy building. What could he mean?

* * *

"What the hell's taking this guy so long! It's nearly lunch!" Naruko growled out as she paced back and forth along the floor of the classroom.

When all the Genin had returned from their break, the Jounin senseis had all turned up to take their team away. All except for Team Seven's sensei.

"I'm sure he has a reason for being late." Sasuke told the angered girl, trying to calm her.

"To be honest, I doubt he does..." Natsune said as she sat beside him leaning on one hand while picking at her teeth with her other.

Kuro remained quiet, sitting on the teachers desk, following Naruko around the room with her eyes, wearing the same face as before. She was wearing a red V neck T-shirt that only had an hollow, black outlined circle on the chest, black shorts, and black, slightly high-heeled shinobi sandals. Underneath the T-shirt she wore a fishnet long sleeved top, the sleeves disappearing into a pair of fingerless shinobi gloves similar, and the neckline visable behind the V-neck.

"Isn't there anything we can do!?" Naruko asked, throwing her arms out infront of her body. "Like, make a trap that flings kunai at his head as punishment for being late?"

"Good to know you're trying to kill me before we've even met." A sarcastic voice said from the doorway.

Naruko turned, as her back was facing the door, and the other occupants of the room looked to see who was at the door, while the smallest turned her head away when she realised who it was, wide eyed with a light blush gracing her face.

At the door was Kakashi, leaning on the side of the door. "Well seeing as that was what you were planning, my first impressions are..."

The four Genin waited in earnest.

"... I... don't like you."

The three girls and boy all facefaulted at this.

"Meet me on the roof." That was all Kakashi said before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

"Now, why don't we start by introducing ourselves?" Kakashi suggested once everyone had gathered on the roof.

Kakashi was leaning on the railing at the edge of the building, while the Genin were sat on steps a few feet away.

"Eh?" Naruko looked confused. "In what way?"

Kakashi leaned back. "You know, simple stuff, your name, likes, dislikes, dreams, hobbies. Stuff like that."

"Can't you go first?" Naruko asked with surprising politeness.

"Sure. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes, my dreams for the future..." He paused. "... I have lots of hobbies."

Each Genin sent him an equally potent glare.

"All he told us was his name..." Grumbled Natsune.

Kakashi clapped once. "Now who'll go first? Boy with the duck butt hair."

Sasuke glared at Kakashi, and also Natsune who had laughed at the name, but shook it off. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I like my friends, sushi and training. I dislike it when too much soy sauce or wasabi is put on the sushi. My hobbies are training and hanging out with my friends. My dream..."

Kakashi listened intently as Sasuke paused.

"... My dream is too revive the Uchiha clan and have them lead a new lease of life."

Kakashi blinked. Not what he was expecting from the boy who had suffered the loss of his entire clan at the hands of his own brother. Recovering he looked towards Kuro. "And you?"

Kuro nodded, pulling out a large notepad out of seemingly nowhere and began to write intently on it. After about a minute of writing, and everyone looking at her oddly, she held the pad up at a page that was titled name. It turned out that each page was titled by one of the categories.

'Name: Kuro'

'Likes: Ice cream, chocolate milk'

Kakashi blinked again at the girls odd way of communicating. "That can't be all you like can it?"

All he received was a blank stare that seemed to look through his body, before the quiet girl looked away, hiding most of her face with her pad, also hiding the blush that was creeping on her face, while Kakashi looked on cluelessly. She lifted the paper to the reveal next page.

'Dislikes: Those who look down on me, bandits, and missing-nin'

'Hobbies: Training'

'Dreams: To be able to live in a peaceful world.'

Kakashi nodded. "Nice dream."

Kuro's blush intensified.

"Kuro-chan, why don't you speak?" Naruko asked as an added question.

'My vocal chords have been ripped.'

Everyone, even Kakashi winced slightly after reading that.

Next Kakashi turned to Naruko. "Blondy?"

Naruko growled at him. "My name is Naruko Uzumaki. I like strawberry flavoured pocky, when Iruka-sensei buys the pocky for me, and Natsune! I dislike the plain biscuit bit that you hold the pocky with because if the pocky is bad then it tastes like sawdust. I also dislike being physically weak. I don't really have a hobby. I guess it's going to become training with Natsune, and my dream is to make people recognise me as a human being and treat me with respect, and I'll do anything to achieve it!"

'Focused on her shinobi career, unlike most kunoichi of her age. Admirable.' Kakashi nodded and looked towards Natsune. "Lastly, emo fringe."

Ignoring Kakashi's evident poke at her new hairstyle, Natsune filled the categories out.

"My name is Natsune Kurama. I have few likes and dislikes, but I really like the look of fear in a human's eye. The rest of my likes and dislikes are best of not being mentioned. My hobby WAS to go on a small slaughter session every once in a while, and I have no dream."

Sasuke wore a freaked out look after he heard that, and Kakashi frowned once again.

'She must be the Kyuubi. Is Hokage-sama sure she's not dangerous?' Kakashi thought to himself. 'Anyway, better wrap this up.'

"Well you're definitely all... unique. I guess that's the word. That's all for today, tomorrow we start missions!"

"Really!?" Naruko said excitedly. "What kind?"

"Just something between the five of us. Survival training."

"Wha~t?" Naruko wasn't impressed, and by the looks of it, neither were her teammates, as Sasuke held an unimpressed gaze and Natsune was pretending to yawn but Kuro seemed indifferent. "We had tonnes of that training at the academy."

"Oh this isn't a normal survival exercise. In this exercise, I'm your opponent."

Kakashi paused to observe their expressions. Naruko was grinning in anticipation, Sasuke's eyes held a firm and confident look, Kuro was blushing and looking away, but Kakashi was disturbed by Natsune's reaction. A wide grin split her face, her teeth on full show as she shivered with battle-lust at the prospect of fighting a strong opponent, similar to her grin in the forest.

'Hokage-sama, are you sure she's safe?'

"And lastly," Kakashi continued, "out of the twenty-eight original Genin, only three teams will make it as real Genin, the rest are sent back to the academy. This training is an exam with a 66% failure rate."

The expressions on the young Genin's faces changed. Naruko's grin fell, the light of confidence in Sasuke's eyes dimmed, Kuro's blush disappeared, her eyes snapping back to Kakashi, eyebrows raised, and Natsune's maniacle look morphed into that of minor worry, lips pursed, a frown growing.

Kakashi stood from his slouch. "Bring all you shinobi equipment tomorrow, see you at training ground seven at 6 o'clock." He turned to head off, but paused. "Oh, and don't eat breakfast, you'll throw up. Bye!"

With that, he was gone.

There was a brief silence amongst the new team, until Kuro stood up and headed for the stairs.

"Ah, Kuro-chan, where're you going?" Naruko called after her, and the pale girl turned after writing something down on her pad that once again appeared out of nothing.

'Training'

"That doesn't seem like a bad idea." Sasuke said, standing up as well and heading for the stairs, not far behind Kuro. "I'm going to train as well."

Once the two left and were out of earshot, Natsune looked to Naruko. "So, you want to perfect that jutsu we were working on yesterday?"

Naruko nodded. "Alright!"

* * *

The next morning, Sasuke arrived at training grounds seven at exactly 6 in the morning, as he was told, and Kuro arrived not too long after. It was now nearly 9am and neither the lookalikes or Kakashi had shown up. Sasuke was sat leaning against a tree, and Kuro was sat in a high branch of the same tree. Not much conversation had been exchanged between the two except the initial greeting. They were sat by the edge of a grassy clearing, near three blocks of wood that were planted into the ground. There was a small pond at the other side of the clearing.

"I wonder who'll arrive latest, Naruko and Natsune or Kakashi-sensei..." Sasuke spoke up.

Kuro held up her pad. 'My bet is on Sensei.'

Sasuke gawked at how she once again grabbed the pad out of nowhere. "Where do you keep that!?"

'Secret'

Sasuke stared at her blankly, and she returned the same stare that she always wore, but their staring competition was interrupted by Naruko bursting onto the scene.

'I win'

Kuro's victory was ignored by Sasuke as he greeted Naruko. "Hey Naruko, you're late." Sasuke then noticed the lack of Natsune. "Where's Natsune?"

"She, er... couldn't make it." Naruko told him and Kuro, who was also listening in. "She had... stuff... to do."

*You're a horrible liar* Natsune's voice rang out in her head.

'Shut up...'

"What did she have to do that was more important than becoming a Genin?" Sasuke asked bluntly, Kuro nodding in agreement.

"Er... Really important stuff! Secret stuff!"

*Urgh...*

'Sorry~...'

Sasuke eyed her suspiciously, but before he could say anything else, Kakashi appeared in the clearing, wearing a backpack and with his hands in his pockets.

"Yo."

Naruko spun to meet him. "You're late!"

"And you're a hypocrite." The Jounin countered. "You only just arrived as well."

The blonde glared at him, but he payed no notice as he pulled an alarm clock from his backpack and setting it down on the middle wooden block and hitting the top to set it off.

'He was carrying an alarm clock...' The thought past through everyone's head as they stared at the man in disbelief.

"The alarms set for noon." He said, gaining their attention as he held up two bells. "There are two bells, your objective is to get one before time runs out. Whoever gets a bell will get lunch."

'That's why he said not to eat breakfast...' Naruko groaned in her head, and she was sure her teammates were doing the same.

"Hold on, there are three of us." Sasuke informed Kakashi, who nodded.

"Exactly, wait... three? Where's Natsune?" Kakashi questioned, looking around the clearing.

"She not here Sensei." Naruko told him, rubbing her neck. 'This is risky Natsune.'

*It'll be fi~ne!*

"Well, if she doesn't turn up soon she'll be failed." Kakashi told Naruko.

*Oh...*

"As I was saying." Kakashi continued. "Yes there are two bells which means only two of you will pass and two will fail."

*He's trying to deceive you, it's a test of teamwork.*

Silently acknowledging Natsune, Naruko looked up to Kuro, who met her gaze and nodded, seeming to also understand the real objective of the test, and in the quick moment Kakashi looked away while he hooked the bells to his waist, she threw a wad of scrunched up paper at Sasuke's head, who gave her a small glare before reading what was on the paper, and nodding at both girls in understanding.

Of course, Kakashi noticed the small exchange, and smiled to himself. "You know." He spoke up, regaining their attention. "If you do well here, I might actually start to like you guys."

This brought a smile to both Sasuke and Naruko's faces, and a large blush from Kuro, who spun a whole one-eighty on her branch so that Kakashi couldn't see it.

"And also," Kakashi added, turning his back, "you must come at me with the intent to kill, or you won't get a bell."

With that he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, causing the Genin to look around in surprise, only to turn around at the sound of Kakashi's 'Yo' and finding him standing in the middle of the clearing.

The Jounin waved. "Come at me!"

Kuro jumped from her tree and landed next to the other two young shinobi.

"So." Sasuke said. "We know the main objective is teamwork, but I'm guessing we still need to grab at least one of the bells. We need a plan."

The girls nodded, Kuro quickly scribbling something down in her pad, then showed the two.

'I'm not good at taijutsu...'

The other two facefaulted.

'But I can provide good long range support'

They perked up at that.

"So I guess Kuro can be support." Summised Sasuke. "I think I'd be best at fighting him up close as I am the best at taijutsu between me and you, Naruko."

"Actually, could I attack Kakashi-sensei from close range?" Naruko asked, fidgeting slightly.

Surprised, Sasuke asked why, to which Naruko replied, "Natsune's been helping me out with my taijutsu training, I want to test myself. Plus you have better aim than me. You'd be better with support alongside Kuro-chan."

Sasuke nodded cautiously. "Alright. I'll support from the trees."

'I'd be better near the water'

"Alright, then you support from there." Sasuke told Kuro.

"Challenge begin!" Naruko cried, punching the air, and with that, the three split off different directions.

* * *

Kakashi was still stood in the middle of the clearing, and had been for around five minutes, in which he had been observing the three (secretly four) present Genin as they talked/wrote/read about their battle plan, then jumped away to their designated spots.

'Well, they've already proven successful with the main objective. Question is, can they pull it off and get one of the bells?' The Jounin looked around. 'They're also able to hide their chakra pretty well. I'm impressed.'

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei!"

The man turned around to the voice and found Naruko stood only feet away from him. "I've been wanting to test out my taijutsu since I learned some new moves."

Kakashi sweatdropped. 'Then again.'

"You seem a little off today, Naruko." Kakashi observed, placing his hands in his pockets while slouching. "Are you hiding anything?"

Naruko flinched. 'Do you think he knows?'

*How about we find out?*

'Alright.'

"Just fight me Sensei!" The blonde yelled, charging Kakashi, swiftly closing the gal between them and raising a fist.

Sasuke looked on from his spot in the trees at the edge of the clearing to see Naruko throw her fist forward, only for it to be caught easily by their Sensei. 'Naruko I hope you know what you doing.'

Back in the 'fight', Kakashi looked down at Naruko as he grabbed her other fist with his other hand. "If you were going to use taijutsu, I expected more. It seems I may have to get bo-"

He was cut off by a fist that impacted his solar plexus, knocking the air out of him. Confused as to how he had been hit, he looked down, to find an arm sprouting from Naruko's stomach. 'What in the-'

Sasuke saw the arm from his perch in a tree, also baffled as to what was happening, until he saw a fishnet sleeve that ended at the wrist, to which he gasped. 'That's...'

"You know, Natsune." A voice rose from Naruko's body, which seemed slightly distorted, and just as Kakashi wondered what it was, a head shadowed by hair rose out of Naruko's stomach, followed by a pair of shoulders.

Red hair.

"I don't think he knows." The person that seemed to grow from Naruko looked up, revealing themselves to be Natsune, who was once again wearing that crazed grin. "Am I late, Kakashi-sensei? Let's have some fun."

Natsune sunk back into Naruko's body, her fist grabbing the cloth of the area it punched. Naruko grinned cheekily. "Got you sensei."

Kakashi's eye widened when he spotted shuriken, that appeared to be on fire, fly from the trees, forcing him to let go of Naruko's fists and knock Natsune's hand away, as he jumped back a fair distance to dodge three waves of the deadly ninja stars. He didn't have much time to recover as Naruko shot at him with newfound speed, one of her many fruits of training incessantly with Natsune over the past couple of days, and threw another punch, which Kakashi moved to block. It was too late when he realised what a bad idea it was, as two more arms sprouted from Naruko's shoulder, both Natsune's, joining the punching arm.

"Tarenken!" Naruko cried as the punches connected with Kakashi's block.

The Jounin's eye widened further as he met the unbelievable force behind the hit, being forced back even further, closer to the water. He then had to moved to his right when he sensed an projectile closing in on him from behind. He turned his head slightly to spot it, not realising how close it was to his face.

'An ice kunai?' He thought as the weapon flew past his face.

He didn't have time to dwell on it though, as he saw Naruko come at him with a kick, with two more legs coming out of her kicking leg's thigh.

"Tarenkyaku!" The blonde cried as she swung her leg in a roundhouse kick.

This time, Kakashi managed to dodge and grab the girl by her thigh, and use her momentum to throw her into the lake. However, before she hit the water, the area she was going hit froze over and rose up, acting as a ramp for her body, which slowly slid to a stop on the ice.

Kakashi looked on in interest. 'It seems that Kuro is a Hyouton user. I heard we had one in Konoha but I never believed it.'

Naruko shook her head after a small bout of dizzyness, looking to her side to see half of Kuro's head popping out of the water, and one of her hands sticking out, giving her the thumbs up, before she disappeared beneath the surface again. After sending a weird look to where Kuro had been, Naruko got up and jumped back to the land, throwing a normal punch at Kakashi, who jumped out of the way, while blocking more shuriken thrown by Sasuke.

When he landed, he was thrown back again by another 'Tarenken' from Naruko and Natsune. While in mid-air he sensed more ice kunai heading for his back, which he managed to arch his body to avoid them, but one of the bells weren't as lucky, the string they were attached to being cut by one of the three kunai thrown.

Kakashi reacted quickly, reaching down to grab it, but was forced to block a two footed 'Tarenkyaku' by Naruko, who had one hand on the ground at the time. Kakashi was sent flying back as Naruko spun on her hand, her other hand picking up the bell as it was in mid fall.

"We did it!" Naruko yelled in excitement, jumping up and down.

Sasuke emerged from the trees and went to celebrate with his blonde haired friend, Kuro turning up not soon after. Naruko stopped her jumping for a moment as, this time, Natsune's whole body split from her, freaking out Sasuke, who she winked at.

"Well done." Kakashi congratulated the four as he approached them. "You seemed to realise the true objective of this task instantly, and you teamwork was near impecable. It seems you pass. You're the first ones to pass my test." He stopped for a moment while the four celebrated. "Just one thing that intrigued me. Naruko, how was Natsune able to enter and leave you body."

"Ah well, you see. Natsune suggested we practise this ninjutsu called 'Sōma no kō' around two days ago. It let Natsune enter my body, and vice versa, but I haven't got the whole 'entering the other's body' thing, so Natsune did it. We thought we'd surprise you." Naruko explained, Natsune nodding sagely in agreement.

"Interesting. Anyway we start missions tomorrow, we'll meet at the small bridge that you crossed to get here. Other than that, see you around." Kakashi turned, but once again stopped. "Oh, and from what I said earlier, you guys are growing on me."

He poofed away, leaving three grinning faces and one blushing red one.

"Alright!" Naruko yelled. "Celebratory pocky. Sasuke's paying!"

"Wha-!? Why me!?" The boy cried in protest.

"It's traditional for human men to always treat the ladies, no?" Naruko inquired.

Kuro quietly nodded in agreement.

"Ugh, fine!"

The four, now official, Genin walked out of the clearing.

* * *

Well, there's the second chapter. Once again to the people who's OC I didn't pick, I apologise, and for Lilese, the owner of Kuro, how was it, did I portray her ok? Now, here are the character files:

Name: Naruko Uzumaki (Fem-Naru)

Nickname: Naru-chan

Age (at start): 13

Blood type: AB

Appearance: Small figure, average sized chest for her age. Bright blonde hair tied in two pigtails like naruto's sexy jutsu. Chin-length bangs either side of her face. Azure eyes. Peachy skin. Same whisker marks as Naruto.

Clothes: Black, tight, thin strapped vest top that ends above her belly button underneath an unzipped zip-up sleeveless jacket that ends just below the vest, with the same pattern as Naruto's 'shippuden' jacket. Belly showing.

Orange thigh length shorts with black stitching and a black lopsided belt.

Personality: Good-humoured, cheeky, slightly naive, sly

Intelligence: 115

Physical Strength: Poor

Chakra type: Blue, wind/water affinity

About: Orphaned daughter of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki (doesn't know). Similar backstory to Naruto in the real story. Suffers from partial insomnia, so has trouble sleeping.

Name: Natsune

Age: ?

Blood type: AB

Appearance: Small figure, average sized chest for her age. Blood red hair tied in two pigtails like naruto's sexy jutsu that has a swept fringe coming over her right eye. Blood red eyes. Peachy skin. Same whisker marks as Naruto. A single fang protrudes from her mouth.

Clothes: Black tight thin strapped vest top that ends above her belly button underneath an unzipped zip-up sleeveless jacket that ends just below the vest, with the same pattern as Naruto's 'shippuden' jacket, just has the colours reversed. Belly showing.

Black thigh length shorts with orange stitching and a black lopsided belt. Fishnet leggings that end above her knees underneath her shorts. Fishnet sleeves similar to Sasuke's except they start at her bicep and end halfway along her forearm.

Personality: Sarcastic, Sadistic, sly, crazy, violent

Intelligence: 195

Physical Strength: Good

Chakra type: Red, earth/fire affinity

About: She is a blood clone that was created by Naruko on the night Naruko stole the forbidden scroll, embodied by the nine tailed fox (fem) when the clone split from Naruko. Named haphazardly by Naruko, her excuse being it was Naruko and Kitsune combined, Natsune. The day after she was created she slightly changed her hairstyle and clothing so she looked different from Naruko. She sounds just like Naruko, except that her voice is slightly distorted when she's in a sadistic mood. Naruko is the only person she will not harm on purpose. She hates all people who caused Naruko grief, which is most of the village, and shows gratitude towards people who have helped her. She is indifferent to people who have done neither to Naruko.

Naruko and Natsune's abilities:

Extreme regeneration, can share the same body, they have a link similar to telepathy.

Shared jutsu:

Name: (Tajuu)Kage Bushin no jutsu ((multi)shadow clone jutsu)

Classification: Ninjutsu, Supplementary

Allows the user to make multiple solid copies of themselves, but is very chakra extensive and usually only a few copies can be made. However, due her large chakra reserves, Naruko make hundreds if needed, and Natsune, being the embodiment of the Kyuubi, can create even more.

Name: Chi Bushin no jutsu (blood clone jutsu)

Classification: Forbidden, Supplementary

The user creates a single blood copy of themselves, cutting their chakra in half to share to the blood copy. Unlike shadow clones blood copies can take several hits before disspelling. In Naruko's case, when she first tried this jutsu from the forbidden scroll, she was low on chakra, so instead of splitting her own chakra, she transferred the chakra of the Kyuubi instead, creating Natsune's body, a permanent blood clone which can't be disspelled.

Name: Sōma no kō (Attack of the twin demons)

Classification: Ninjutsu, Supplementary

Allows Natsune to hide within Naruko's body, and vice versa, where she is able to protrude any of her body parts from Naruko's body to defend her or reinforce her attack. They are able to split apart to double team their opponent. When one is injured, they move into the others body to heal faster.

Name: Tarenkyaku (Multiple connected feet)

Classification: Taijutsu, offensive

Natsune's legs sprout from Naruko's (or vice versa) and they kick the opponent, tripling the damage.

Name: Tarenken (Multiple connected fists)

Classification: Taijutsu, offensive

Natsune's arms sprout from one of Naruko's (or vice versa) and they punch the opponent, tripling the damage. This attack is strong enough to shatter solid rock.

Naruko's jutsu (knows):

Name: Kifu no jutsu (Endowment jutsu)

Classification: Henge

Similar to Naruto's sexy jutsu, except her body becomes the perfect hourglass figure, which she uses to tease or seduce people. Very effective on perverts.

Name: Suiton Teppoudama (Water Bullet)

Classification: Ninjutsu, offensive

After forming the necessary hand seals, Naruko manifests a large amount of water in her mouth which she can then spit at her opponent as a large spherical projectile.

Name: Mizu shūshuku no jutsu (Water contraction jutsu)

Classification: Ninjutsu, supplementary

The user is able to draw water out of any surrounding plant life and utilise it in their jutsu. Advanced users of this technique can draw out water from any source, including other humans.

Name: Suirou no jutsu (Water prison jutsu)

Classification: Ninjutsu, supplementary

Naruko forms the necessary hand seals which causes the water to form around the target into a spherical prison which only allows for limited movement. The ninja must keep their body touching the water prison to maintain its existence. If the contact is broken, the water falls away and their target is released. When combined with a bunshin technique, the ninja can imprison their target but still allow for a clone to attack others nearby.

Natsune's jutsu: Unknown

And Kuro's file:

Name: Kuro Tsukuba

Nickname: Kuro-chan

Bloodtype: O-

Appearance: Knee length white hair with a black ribbon tied in the last few inches. Pitch-black eyes. Pale complexion. Short and skinny with a low A. Burn scars plague her right side. Usually holds a blank/stern stare.

Clothes: She wears a red v-neck t-shirt with a black circle on the front. Mesh underneath and black gloves. She wears black shorts and heeled black ninja sandals.

Personality: Normally is very serious, but when aquainted with her favorite things uncharacteristically lets nothing stand between her and those things.(like ice-cream or chocolate milk)

IQ: slightly above average (110)

Physical strength: Poor

Love interest: Kakashi

Chakra style: Icy blue in color/ elemental affinity water/wind

Backstory-When she was little she and her shinobi mother were attacked, her vocal cords were damaged, rendering her unable to speak, and her mother died saving her, but she was unconscious during the event. After her mother died she forgot why she wanted to be a shinobi, but Iruka reminded her of it. Her father is a civilian unlike her shinobi mother. He tends to rant about shinobi whenever he comes home drunk thereby disheartening the poor girl of her dreams. She has many nightmares about her mother all of which provide new possibilities of how she could have died. During and after these dreams being the only time she shows weakness.

Jutsu specialty-ninjutsu

List of jutsus:

Name: Hyouton-kekkei genkai

The holder has the ability to create and manipulate ice to their will.

Name: Kōri kabe (Ice wall)

Classification: Defensive, ninjutsu

A twelve foot high six foot wide wall is placed in front of the user, but can't take much damage.

Name: Kōri kunai (Ice kunai)

Classification: Offensive, ninjutsu

A small reflective kunai made of ice.

Name: Kōri Kōtaku (Ice sheen)

Classification: Defensive, ninjutsu

The ground is iced over in a maximum of a hundred feet radius making the enemies movements less precise and dodges slower.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello again~. Currently ideas for these chapters are running through my mind like a goods train through a tunnel! Not much to say right now, except that I've added italics to Kuro's way of communicating, just to save confusion between thinking and her 'speech'.

Also, for people who ask questions in their reviews, I reply via PM, so go to your inbox for your answers!

And lastly, this chapter may be smaller that the other two, as I've been needing to cut things into parts now.

* * *

"Damn, now I know why that cat ran away..." Natsune admitted bluntly, rubbing the back of her neck.

She and the rest of Team Seven were stood in the mission briefing room, standing in the middle of the room while blankly staring at a rather large woman dressed in royal clothes who was stood to the side, rubbing her cheek roughly against the head of the same cat Natsune sympathised, said cat being the infamous Tora. The cat currently wore a terrified look as it tried to scrabble away from it's owner in a fruitless attempt of escape.

The rest of Natsune's team thought equally, is seemed, as they all stared at the cat with some amount of sympathy, even though Kuro and Naruko were suffering from various scratch marks.

Once the woman left the room still smarming the poor Tora, Naruko leant down to Kuro.

"As much as I feel sorry for that cat, there is some part of me that makes me feel like I want it to suffer at the hands of that woman..." She whispered to the mute, who nodded in agreement.

At the other end of the room sitting at a small briefing desk, the only other thing in the room, was the Hokage, alongside him Iruka, both of them sorting through mission documents. The Hokage placed his down for a moment and looked at a list.

"Well, Team Seven. Congratulations on finding Madam Shijimi's 'poor' cat. Now you have a choice of missions next. There are potatoes that need picking, an elder's grandson needs babysitting, and there's some shopping to pick up in the neighbouring village." The old shinobi listed off.

"Urgh! I didn't come here to do daily household chores!" Natsune complained. "There's got to be something more exciting to do!"

Kuro pulled out her pad._ 'I agree...'_

The other too Genin also nodded in agreement with her, and Kakashi resisted the urge to face-palm.

The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Such as?"

"You know, something with fighting, a little bit of killing perhaps?" Natsune suggested with a predatory grin.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and the two men at the mission desk sweatdropped, while Kuro held up her pad.

'_I wouldn't go that far, maybe just fighting'_

Naruko sweatdropped. "That's not all that better, Kuro-chan."

Kuro just stared at her.

The Third cough to gain the Genins' attentions. "Natsune, know now that there is more to a ninja's job beside mindless killing and slaughter." Natsune wore a sheepish look. "In this village we have civilians, who need help, be that they are old or disabled. You need to learn this and do assist willingly if you wish to stay here."

Natsune nodded in submission, understanding what he meant. "Yes, Sandaime."

Sasuke eyed the red-head. 'What kind of place is she from?'

"Though, old man." Naruko spoke up. "Natsune does have a point, aside from the fighting and killing. Can't we just have an easy C-rank to start us off?"

The Hokage sighed. "I feel as though you should at least do a few more D-ranks..."

Naruko straightened, activated her Kifu no jutsu, and her now well endowed form strutting over to the mission desk.

"I'm sure you can reconsider, Ho-ka-ga-sa-ma~" She asked in a seductive tone, making sure her now larger cleavage was in front the old pervert's face.

"Well there is a C-rank escort mission that needs to be taken." The Hokage answered swiftly, a happy perverted look on his face.

"Hokage-sama!" Iruka cried in disbelief.

"I'm sure they'll be fine Iruka." The Hokage waved him away.

"Awesome!" Naruko dismissed the jutsu and walked back to her team, earning high-fives from Sasuke and Kuro, and a 'That's my girl!' from Natsune. Kakashi's resistance faultered this time and he indeed face-palmed.

"This is a simple escort mission to the land of waves." The Third informed them, then turned to the door to the room. "You may come in."

"Who do you think it'll be!?" Naruko excitedly, bouncing on her feet.

Natsune grinned. "Seeing as it's the land of waves, I'd say some pirate overlord!"

Kakashi looked at her blankly. "You've never been to the Land of Waves, have you?"

"Nope!"

'_Princess...'_

"I... doubt it, Kuro." Kakashi told the girl, who looked down in mild disappointment.

The door swung open to reveal something non of the Team were expecting, and Sasuke, who had kept quiet throughout the past events, voiced his opinion.

"Are you serious?.."

Standing at the door was a portly old man who looked like your average drunkard. He slouched against the door, a bottle of sake gripped tightly in his hand. He took a judgemental look at the group infront of him.

"I thought I asked for a team of shinobi, not a joke of a team made up of a lazy cyclops, two skin showy girls, one of which is an emo, a guy with a duck butt for hair, and a seven year old."

Sasuke and Naruko had no time to pay heed to the insults, as they had shied away from Kuro, who was giving off a dark aura.

_'I'll kill him'_

Natsune, who still had her back turned to the old man, turned her head to him, flashing him an evil smirk. "I wouldn't underestimate us, for your own sake drunkard."

"I don't think it would be a good idea to kill the man we're being hired to protect you two." Kakashi told them, even though he sent a small wave of killing intent when he glanced at the man.

He seemed affected, flinching slightly, but he quickly recovered to introduce himself. "I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna. I expect you to provide me with super protection while you escort me to my village so I can finish the bridge."

"What? Aren't your village and bridge 'super' as well?" Sasuke asked, voice dripping with sarcasm, making the two of his teammates who are capable of noise stifle a laugh, and Tazuna frown.

"Ok enough guys." Kakashi told his team, turning to Tazuna. "We need to get set up, so can we meet you at the North Gate in half an hour?"

Tazuna grunted. "Fine by me."

The man turned and staggered out of the door.

* * *

"Wo~w! This is so cool!" Naruko ran ahead of the others as they all walked along a dirt path in a small woodland area. "I've never been out of the village before. Natsune you were right! It's so pretty~!"

Naruko then proceeded to flop to the ground as she attempted to make a dust angel with her arms and legs.

Tazuna looked down at the girl in disbelief, before looking back at Kakashi. "Hey am I really safe around her?"

Kakashi chuckled. "I assure you, my team are far more capable than you think, and I'm also a Jounin, so-"

"You're doubting us." Sasuke accused his superior, appearing to his left.

"No! No I wasn-"

"Yes you were." Natsune stated, arms folded as she appeared to his right, making Kakashi sweat.

_'Liar_' Kuro appeared next to Natsune.

Beads of sweat ran down the Jounin's face as he tried to get out of his situation.

As Tazuna once again shook his head in disbelief, and Kakashi tried to fumble out an excuse, something caught Kuro's eye at the side of the road, and she veered off from the group, gaining the attention of the others, including Naruko, who sat up.

"Kuro-chan? Where're you going?"

Their queries were answered when the small girl crouched by the side of the road, by a small puddle, staring at it. After a few seconds, she proceeded to breath freezing cold air over it, quickly freezing it over. Kakashi nodded in understanding, but the others were confused. With a small point towards the now frozen puddle, and a small gesture to come to her, the rest of Team Seven and Tazuna approached her, Kakashi in front.

He leaned over to take a look at the ice, and was met by three faces looking back at him, one being his reflection, the other two being very familiar missing nin, both with surprised looks on their faces.

"Well I never. Good job Kuro." He praised the girl, patting her gently on the head, to which her face heated up dramatically.

"What is it?" Natsune pushed through to see, raising her eyebrows when she also recognised the two. "They're the demon brothers of the mist. Why would they be around here? On this route as well. They're more notorious for causing trouble up north." She raised her hand to her chin in a thinking pose, looking at her own reflection. "Though I must say, that third person is smokin'!"

"It seems our client has some explaining to do." Kakashi murmured, as he and the four Genin swivelled round to face him, all with expectant looks on their faces, to see that he was in a similar state to Kakashi a few minutes prior.

* * *

Most of Team Seven and their client stood around a tree, the two thawed out missing nin now hanging upside down from a tree branch, wrapped up by their own razor-edged chain that Natsune found while searching them, the same girl being the one who wrapped them up and hung them there, and was putting the finishing touches to whatever she was doing.

"So Tazuna." Kakashi gave a sideways glance to the now sober man, his voice almost too calm. "These two are ex-chuunin from the Hidden Mist, and both were obviously hiding in that puddle with the intent to attack us. Care to explain why ninja which have been placed in the bingo books are appearing on what should be a C-rank escort mission, where the most deadly thing we can come across is lizard with pointy teeth?"

"Actually, there is a lizard around here that secretes poison from it's teeth to kill it's prey." Natsune cut in her head popping down from the leaves of the tree the Demon brothers were hanging from, but quickly shut up with an apology after a look from Kakashi, and disappeared again.

"This has now become at least a B-rank mission, something my team did not accept. We have every right to turn back now, so we'd better be given a good reason to stay."

Tazuna sighed, as everyone except Natsune turned to him, expecting him to say something. After a few seconds of Tazuna just looking troubled, Naruko turned to Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, why don't we at least escort him to Wave country, and let him explain himself on the way there? If he doesn't give a good reason, we leave after that."

Sasuke nodded. "Seems fair."

'_I agree_'

After acknowledging his team, Kakashi looked back at Tazuna. "Looks like my team are giving you a chance. I wouldn't waste it."

Tazuna gulped. "Th-thank you!"

"Ok~!" Natsune jumped down from the tree. "These guys won't be going anywhere soon." She indicated to the rogue nin, slapping the closest one lightly in the jaw. "If they move even a inch their own blades will cut into them. If they move because they're either idiotic or stubborn, the blades with eventually cut through the tree branch like a saw and they will drop, rolling down this incline straight back to Konoha, and their blades will dig deeper with each roll." She ended her explanation with a sadistic grin, making everyone except Kuro, who was clapping, sweatdrop.

"Well, that's definitely... what's the word?" Sasuke pondered, disturbed by what he was just told.

'_Inspired!'_

"Not the word I would use..." Sasuke finished.

"Anyway, how about we carry on?" Kakashi suggested, receiving nods from all.

* * *

"Wow this mist sure is thick." Sasuke commented as they they all sat in a small tug boat that was being powered by a man with a paddle, the transport they were using to reach the Wave country. "I can't see a metre in front of me."

'_You should let me clear the mist a bit..._'

"I've already said it twice Kuro! That could give us away to the enemy." Natsune told her in a tired voice.

Kuro stared at her, wearing her usual expression.

'_So what's your idea?'_

"Ah, she's got you there Natsune." Naruko admitted.

Natsune turned to her ex-vessel. "You're meant to be my partner! Back me up!"

"Hey, quieten down a bit." Kakashi warned them, then he turned back to Tazuna, summarising what the man had told him in his head. "So this man called Gatou has basically turned your small village into a dictatorship, placing ridiculous taxes that leave the people of wave with little to no money. That being the reason why you couldn't apply for a higher ranked mission. What does this have to do with the bridge?"

Tazuna nodded to clarify what Kakashi said so far. "The bridge will be connected to the mainland, so there'll be no need for his shipping companies, which is what he owns, so he'll gain barely any money. And, since I'm in charge of the project, he's after my life."

"Because you're in his way." Naruko summised.

"Were those chuunin hired by Gatou?" Sasuke asked Kakashi, who nodded.

"Most likely."

"So, if you ninja decide to abandon the mission, it's ok. I'll only die." Tazuna told them, trying the sympathy move. "And it's not like I have a 10 year old grandson who'll cry for a few days, or a daughter that wi-"

"Quit it with the sob story. Have we said we're leaving?" Natsune asked bluntly, playing with a piece of pocky in her mouth, something Naruko hastiy noticed.

"That's my pocky!" She yelled, standing from her perch on the boat.

"Will you keep it down!" The boatman whispered sternly towards the group. "Why do you think we're hiding in the mist in the first place!?"

Naruko whispered a sorry, and returned to her seat, but not without glaring at her roommate and partner, to which Natsune replied with a peace sign with her fingers.

"So you'll help me?" Tazuna asked, hopeful.

Kakashi glanced at his team, non of them looking like they want to stop now, and sighed, turning back to the builder. "I guess so."

Tazuna bowed his head gratefully. "Thank you."

Once the boat finally reached land, Tazuna thanked the boatman for taking such a risk, who hurried away using a motor on the boat that wasn't used before, leaving the team plus client to continue on foot.

"Now. Keep an eye out for any hostile activity." Kakashi informed his team.

His group nodded, but as they turned to walk towards Tazuna's village, Kuro veered of the side of the path again, this time fumbling through a bush, then disappearing behind it. The group stared at the place she had disappeared in confusion.

"Er... Kuro-chan?" Naruko called out.

The white haired girl reappeared, holding what appeared to be a white rabbit in her arms, a small smile on her face.

'_Cute'_

Kakashi, however, frowned. 'That's a snow rabbit, but it's spring, so it's fur should be brown, which means it's been kept in captivity for substitution.'

It seemed that Natsune had been thinking along the same line. "Sensei..."

Both of their eyes widened when he heard a rustle in the trees behind the group. "Everyone get down!"

Everyone did so, Naruko pushing Tazuna to the ground, just in time for a cleaver blade to soar over their heads, which would have decapitated them all, ending up sticking out of a tree on the other side of the path. A tall man landed on the handle of the cleaver, back facing the group. He wore long pants, the waist reaching under his bare chest, a cross strap whcih was used to carry the blade he had just thrown, and bandages that acted as a mask were wrapped around his neck to her nose, showing his eyes. Coverin his lower legs and wrist were leg warmers and sleeves that had the traditional Mizu camouflage. He had a Mizu hitae-ate around his forehead.

Kakashi looked at the man, his visible eye wide. 'That's...'

"Zabuza Momochi." Natsune walked forward wearing a smirk, cracking her knuckles. "Boy am I going to enjoy beating your ass."

Her advance was stopped by Kakashi blocking her way. "No, you four surround and protect the client."

Natsune pulled a disappointed face. "Urgh, killjoy."

She trudged to Tazuna, and she with the other Genin formed a protective circle around his, weapons raised. Except for Kuro, who was still holding the rabbit.

"Kuro let the rabbit go..." Sasuke told her, and she sighed, reluctantly placing the rabbit in the floor, where it then scampered off.

"Natsune, I understand that you're strong, but this guy's on a whole new level. A-rank missing-nin Zabuza Momochi." Kakashi informed them, before gripping the slanted section of his hitae-ate, pulling it up to reveal a his left eye, which held the sharingan. "This'll be tough, I'm going to need to to use this."

Zabuza's bandages creased as he smirked beneath them. "To see the sharingan so early. I should be honoured, Sharingan Kakashi."

Kakashi glared at the missing-nin, while all except Natsune looked at Kakashi with shock, even Kuro to an extent.

'Sharingan?' Sasuke thought in confusion. 'But only the Uchiha can wield it. Could Sensei be?..'

Natsune frowned. 'The sharingan can copy another's moves and create powerful illusions. How did Kakashi get a hold of that?'

"Sharingan Kakashi." Zabuza spoke, making vicious eye contact with the man in person. "I apologise, but that old man is mine."

"Well I also apologise, but that old man is my client. It's my job to protect him." Kakashi said calmly.

Zabuza moved to a crouch on his sword. "So, it seems I have to get past you first."

He ripped his cleaver from the tree and pushed off of it, landing on the surface of the water where Team Seven had just arrived, and made a one handed seal. "Kirigakure no jutsu..."

Everyone tensed when Zabuza disappeared from view due to a thick mist that rolled in out of nowhere.

Naruko looked around hastily. "Where'd he go!?"

No-one had chance to answer when a devilish voice reached them through the thick mist.

"Eight choices; liver, lungs, spine, neck, clevical vein, brain, kidneys, heart. Which one should be my kill point?"

Natsune smirk evilly. "Sadistic and scary. I kind of like this guy."

Then, all people present were hit with an overwhelming amount of killing intent, even causing Kakashi and Natsune to flinch. However, Kuro seemed to be taking it the worst, as she dropped to her knees, gripping her head, her barely visible pupils dilating in fear.

'Such powerful killing intent.' She thought franticly, looking at the ground, struggling to breath, her usually blank face contorted with fear. 'Just like that man...'

"Kuro!"

The small girl was broke out of her stupor by Kakashi's voice. She turned to her Sensei, to find him looking back at her with his usual friendly eye smile.

"Stay calm. I won't let any of you die. Not while I'm alive."

Kuro calmed, reassured by her Sensei's kind words, and she stood back up, not expecting the gust of air to knock her forward when Zabuza appeared in the middle of the Genin.

"I wouldn't be too sure, Kakashi." The rogue nin sneered, beginning to swing his sword, intent on slicing all of the people surrounding him in half.

Natsune reacted faster than even Kakashi, managing to raise a chakra infused palm and stop the blade's movement before hit made contact with anyone.

"I know I said I kind of liked you, but you were about to try to kill Naruko. I can't allow that." Natsune looked at the man, her maniacle grin etched across her face, a trail of blood running from her palm.

Reacting not soon after, the other three Genin spun and each stabbed Zabuza with their own kunai, while Natsune was wrestling with the man's blade. He gawked in pain, before his body warped and fell to the ground as nothing but water.

'Mizu bushin!?' Kakashi, who had stopped his advance towards his team, looked around.

"Sensei behind you!" Naruko warned him, and his eyes widened when he sensed Zabuza behind him, but he had no time to react as he was sliced in half at the waist, his blood spewing out of his detached body. Zabuza frowned as that blood lost it's colour and fell to the ground as water, same witht the rest of the Jounin's body. Not a second later a kunai was by his neck, held by Kakashi, who leaned down to his ear.

"It's over."

"He got him!" Naruko cheered.

Sasuke grinned. 'Impressive, Sensei copied his Mizu Bushin no jutsu in this mist.'

'_Amazing'_

Zabuza scoffed. "There's no way you monkey like imitations can beat me."

After saying that, Zabuza melting onto the ground again, and another Zabuza, this time the real one appeared behind Kakashi, turned just in time to duck under a swing of Zabuza's cleaver. The mist ninja smirked under his mask, as he used the momentum of his blade to send a powerful kick to Kakashi's face, sending him flying back into the water.

"Sensei!" Naruko and Sasuke yelled.

Kakashi rose from the water, but seemed to be struggling to stay afloat. 'This water seems so thick.'

His eyes widened when Zabuza appeared next to him, completing a set of handsigns and raising his hands towards Kakashi. "Suirou no jutsu."

Kakashi had no time to react as he was enveloped within a unbreakable bubble of water. He glared at Zabuza, who payed him no heed as he made another Mizu Bushin to stand between him and the Genin.

"Dammit! That guys using the same jutsu I use!" Naruko cried, pointing at the trapped Kakashi.

"Kuro can't you freeze it so Sensei can break free?" Sasuke asked, turning to his small teammate.

'_Out of range'_

"Wonderful..." Natsune said sarcastically.

'_However'_

The other three looked at Kuro.

_'His clone isn't, I can stop him._'

Naruko nodded. "Alright, and after that, Natsune, Sasuke, throw me!"

The two nodded.

Back on the water, Zabuza gave an amused laugh. "Look at those brats. Trying to find a way to rescue their precious sensei. Pathetic."

"I wouldn't underestimate my team." Kakashi told him, managing to turn his head slightly to look at the missing nin.

Zabuza ignored him. "Whatever. Kill them." He told his clone who shot towards the Genin.

Taking a step back, Naruko looked to Kuro. "Kuro-chan!"

The girl nodded, raising and directing her hand at the approaching clone, freezing it in it's place, and Sasuke then destroyed it with a kunai rigged with an explosive tag.

Zabuza's eyebrows, or lack of, shot up. 'Ice techniques!? How!? Haku should be the only alive that can use them!'

Sasuke and Natsune the grabbed Naruko by an arm each, leaping forward and throwing the blonde towards Zabuza with the help of their momentum. While in the air, Naruko bombarded Zabuza with shuriken and kunai, but the mist nin simply raised his blade to deflect them. What he didn't expect when he lowered his weapon, was to see Naruko directly infront of him, her hands finishing the same seals he had just made.

"Suirou no jutsu!"

Zabuza growled as water rose from the lake and trapped him in the same water bubble that he held Kakashi captive with. All that wasn't within the bubble was the arm that was connected to Kakashi's prison, which was soon frozen and shattered when Kuro approached and touched the surface of the bubble, freeing the Jounin. The water prison formed by Naruko then expanded to cover Zabuza's arm as well. The rest of the group arrived not soon after.

"I did warn you Zabuza." Kakashi told the trapped missing nin. "It seems the rolls are reversed, no?"

Zabuza growled again, glaring at Naruko, who was just managing to stand on the land without falling into the water with the help of Natsune wrapping her arms around her waist. "When I get out of here I'll rip you in half!"

"Well I guess you'll have to wait a while then." Naruko replied cheekily, sticking her tongue out and winking.

"I'll kill you a-" Zabuza's yell was halted when two senbon flew out if nowhere, penetrating the water jutsu and impacting Zabuza at vital areas in his neck, effectively killing him.

Naruko blinked. "Eh?"

Everyone turned in the direction the senbon came from to see a masked person with their hair tied in a bun, with two long bangs either side of their face, who was wearing a yukata, standing on a branch of a nearby tree.

"You can free him now. He is no longer a threat." The masked ninja told them with a graceful voice.

After a second, Kakashi nodded to Naruko who ended contact with the prison, and pulled Zabuza's body onto the shore, where Kakashi checked for a pulse, finding non.

"He really is dead."

The masked ninja jumped from his perch on the branch and landed infront on the group. "I thank you for your help. I've been waiting for the oppotune moment to kill Zabuza for a long time."

Kakashi looked at the Mizu symbol that was engraved into the ninja's mask. "You're a Mizu hunter nin?"

After a short silence, the ninja answered. "You are correct."

"Hunter nin?" Naruko repeated, confused.

"Basically specialised ninja that go around killing and collecting missing nin, like this guy here." Natsune told her partner, kicking Zabuza's body as an indication that she was talking about him, and both she and Kakashi noticed the nin stiffen when she did so.

'Suspicious...' Kakashi frowned. 'From his size and voice, he doesn't seem much older than my team, yet he's a hunter nin. He's not normal.'

The hunter nin approached the body, hefting an arm around his shoulder. "I will dispose of the body, it hold far too many secrets. Farewell."

And with that, he disappeared, taking Zabuza's body with him.

"He's gone!" Naruko exclaimed.

"Never mind that now," Kakashi said to them, pulling his hitae-ate back over his sharingan eye, "Zabuza's no longer our problem. However, we need to get Tazuna to his home. I'm sure he can lead the way?"

Tazuna nodded. "Follow me, you can stay there while you recover from your fight."

Kakashi gave him a nod of gratitude. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Team Seven followed Tazuna down the dirt path, headed for his house, but Natsune pulled up beside her sensei.

"Kakashi..."

"I know..."

* * *

And there, my friends is the third chapter, and I have nothing important to say in this A/N, so I bid you all adieu. 'Till next time!

This is a red penguin saying goodbye!


	4. Chapter 4

Hello peoples! Compared to my previous uploades, this one is a tad later. I had some trouble finding a way to start the chapter. It's always been a problem for me. After the initial start I whizz through it all. Though the fighting was tough to write too. This was hard for me to differentiate this arc from the canon, even if only a tad in parts. I'll be honest and say I've already got most of the chuunin exam arc planned, it's just a means of finishing this arc first. The chuunin exam arc is far more malleable.

Now, just something I thought I'd say, the amount of views this story has gained at the moment i am typing this is just under 900, with over 450 of them originating from America, so go on you US beasts! Coming second on the views is the UK, with 49... yeah... Catch up lads/ladies :3 (My people!)

And also, that many hits, yet only 11 reviews? Come on guys~. More reviews = happy me = more enthusiastic me = more updates. But I'm not one of those guys who won't upload without 'x' number of reviews. Anymore, anyway. That's a desperate or beginner's move in my eyes.

Well, here's the chap.

* * *

"This food's amazing!"

Everyone around the table in Tazuna's house reciprocated Naruko's cry of joy while they all happily dug in to a simple beef stew with seasoned rice.

Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, smiled gracefully. "I'm glad my cooking's being appreciated. Usually it's gone in a second, along with the person eating it..." She added, glaring at her father, who avoided her gaze.

Tsunami was a young woman, aged twenty-nine, with smooth and graceful features. Dark brown eyes invited comfort, warmth, and seemed to calm the tired and on edge ninja that had walked through her door not half an hour ago. Dark blunette hair that fell loose reached her mid back and had two bangs either side of her head that reached her chest. She wore a pink top, the end of the sleeves and neckline a vivid red, and a navy blue skirt that reached her knees.

The room they were in was small, a six seater table in the middle, and a set of cupboards and a cooker lined up along one of the walls. Sat at the table were Naruko, Sasuke, Kuro and Tazuna, with Kakashi stood to the side and Tsunami sorting pots and pans by the cooker. Natsune was currently absent, saying she wanted a walk by herself, then leaving.

Swallowing a mouthful of rice, Sasuke decided to ask the question that had been bothering him since their fight with Zabuza. "Kakashi-sensei."

The Jounin in question, who had declined a meal, was stood in a corner of the room reading out of an orange book, something Team Seven had realised wasn't the cleanest piece of literature. Kakashi looked up from his book. "Hmm?"

"The boy with the mask. Who was he exactly?" The Uchiha inquired, resting his head in an open palm.

Kakashi put his book away. "Judging by the mask, I'd say he was a Kiri hunter nin."

"Aren't hunter nin the guys who kill missing nin for their secrets or something?" Naruko asked, leaning back on her chair as Tsunami cleared the now empty plates.

"Sort of. They're job is to erase the existance of that body so non of the villages secrets get into enemy hands." Kakashi explained. "If I died, it would be our hunter nins' job to make sure my sharingan isn't retrieved by an enemy. There's always the danger of people stealing your jutsu. Hunter nin stop secrets from getting out, by destroying a missing nin's body so that there's no trace of their being left."

Naruko grimaced. "That sounds gross..."

"Veering away from the topic of death and mutilation, who wants dessert?" Tsunami asked cheerfully, spinning around from the cupboards and placing a tub of ice cream on the table, something Kuro noticed instantly.

The pale girl made to reach out and grab the entire tub, eyes hypnotically glued to her desire, only for it to be taken by Tsunami, causing Kuro to look up with a look of mild surprise and sadness.

"It's polite to thank people for offering before you take it." Tsunami told Kuro with stern voice, and Kuro continued to look at her with a sad expression.

"Er... Tsunami-san." Naruko gained her attention. "Kuro-chan can't talk. She's a mute."

Tsunami's gaze shot to Kuro again, who was wearing her usual blank look now. "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't know." She placed the tub back down and handed Kuro a bowl and spoon. "Help yourself."

Everyone looked on as Kuro did just that, scooping up some ice cream and instantly shovelling it in her mouth, a small look of bliss covering her blank features as she held the spoon there, causing the some occupants of the room to chuckle slightly at the sight.

"Kakashi."

Everyone except Kuro looked to the door to see Natsune leaning against the wall beside it.

"I don't suppose you've told them?" Natsune asked the masked man.

"Ah, well..." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, making the red-head sigh.

"You're useless..." She looked to the occupants of the room. "Both Kakashi and I believe Zabuza to be alive."

This brought about mixed reactions from the people unaware of this. Sasuke, Naruko and Tazuna all wore looks of extreme shock, Kuro had stopped eating the ice cream and turned to Natsune with the spoon still in her mouth, eyes showing slight shock. Tsunami just wore a confused frown that simply said 'I have no idea who you mean...'.

"But Kakashi-sensei! You said yourself that Zabuza was dead after checking his pulse!" Naruko then turned to Natsune. "And you! Why didn't you tell me this sooner!?"

She proceeded to shake Natsune vigorously by her shoulders, dizzying her red headed clone.

_'I'm not sure how to react to this situation..._'

"What makes you think this Sensei?" Sasuke asked after gaining some amount of composure.

Natsune answered for the Jounin, managing to break free of Naruko's hold. "What Sensei didn't include about Hunter nin, was that they tend to dispose of a ninja's body instantly. What did that boy do with Zabuza's body?"

"He took it away." Naruko answered.

"Correct." Kakashi spoke up. "Also, remember what weapon he used to 'kill' Zabuza with."

"Senbon needles?" Sasuke asked rhetorically, before the realisation dawned on him. "Senbon have a low fatality rate unless they strike unless they impact a vital organ."

"They are also a weapon that can be used with deadly accuracy." Kakashi went into greater detail. "Hunter nin are trained to know everything about the human body, so for that boy to be able to hit a nerve in Zabuza's neck that caused a temporary death it would be simple. I think that's the reason he had no pulse. With all that put together, it's good idea to assume..."

"That Zabuza's still alive." Natsune finished, her maniacle grin etched onto her face. "And he has a little friend as well."

Grim looks grew on the faces of the other Genin.

"Are you sure you're not over-thinking this?" Tazuna said, half in denail, half in hope. "I mean, hunter nin are meant to kill missing nin."

Kakashi shook his head. "No. It fits almost perfectly. We must prepare, should the worst come to pass."

"But what if Zabuza attacks tomorrow or something!?" Naruko asked frantically.

"That shouldn't happen." Natsune told her former jailer. "As I recall, when someone is placed in a momentary death, it takes a while for them to recuperate, correct."

Kakashi nodded. "Usually around a week, so we have at leasts five or six days to give you guys some training so you can prepare to fight Zabuza."

"What's the point?" A voice came from the door to the house, behind Natsune.

All eyes landed on a small boy didn't seem any older than six or seven years old, and was wearing a black pair of dungarees over a pale yellow woolly top. On his head was a pale yellow and black striped fisherman's hat. He wore a blank expression on his face, similar to Kuro's, only his seemed to hold no hope.

"Ah! Inari, where've you been?" Tazuna stood to welcome the young boy.

"Inari, say hello to the nice ninja. They protected your grandfather." Tsunami told him.

Inari glanced at each member of Team Seven briefly, before blankly stating, "You're all going to die."

Naruko and Sasuke both glared at Inari, Kuro and Kakashi both looked indifferent to the boy's statement. Natsune, who had been observin the boy from over her shoulder, turned her head away, wearing a grimace and murmuring about how she already wanted to hurt the child.

Inari continued. "You can't defeat Gatou. You'll all die meaningless deaths."

Naruko stood from her chair, growling. "You little brat! What do you think you're saying!? You can't just predict someone's death just because you're feeling all mopey!"

"Naruko, calm down." Kakashi told her.

"But Sensei!"

She stopped when Inari walked out of the room.

Tazuna gave the team an apologetic look.

"What's his problem?" Sasuke asked bluntly.

_'He's a brat...'_

* * *

"Ok, let's begin the training!" Kakashi said, clapping his hands as he stood infront of his students in a forest area not far from Tazuna's house. "First off, do all of you understand about chakra and molding chakra?" He received four nods and continued. "Good. Then we will begin the first exercise."

"Which is?" Sasuke trailed off, waiting for the answer.

"Tree Climbing!"

Kakashi receive three blank looks and one bored look.

"Are you serious?" Naruko asked him in a criticising tone. "What ninja can't climb a tree? All they need are hands and feet!"

Kuro looked away.

"No. In this exercise, you'll be climbing using only the soles of your feet."

"Eh?"

"In order to do this," Kakashi continued. "Just channel chakra into you feet and once you feel as though it's balanced, simply do this."

Kakashi casually walked towards a tree with his hands in his pockets, placed one foot on the bark, and the other above that one, making his way up the tree, his body parallel to the ground. Naruko and Sasuke looked on in awe, and Kuro in admiration. Natsune still looked bored.

Kakashi then jumped of the tree and landed on his feet. "Ok. Now you try. I would advise taking a run up to start off."

Nodding, the four Genin chose a tree each and stood infront of it. Almost in sync, Naruko, Sasuke and Kuro all ran at their tree, while Natsune just walked up her's from the get-go.

Sasuke managed to take nine steps before he broke the bark due to too much chakra, forcing him to jump off. When he landed, he looked to see how his teammates were doing, and his jaw dropped when he realised they all made it up first try. Naruko and Natsune were standing on top of branches on their trees, while Kuro hung upside down from one on her's.

Sasuke gawked while Kakashi nodded in approval. "How the hell have you done that first time!?"

Natsune smirked. "Me and Naruko have always had near perfect chakra control."

Kuro held up her pad, forgetting that she was upside down, then realised, spinning the pad around so everyone could read it.

_'My jutsus require me to have almost perfect control over my chakra anyway_'

Sasuke groaned as Kakashi congratulated the other Genin. "I'm going to have to keep doing this aren't I?.."

"Yep." Kakashi answered. "Until you get the hang of it. There's no point in the girls doing this if they can already do it. They'll be doing the next exercise. I wouldn't be so down, women naturally have better chakra control."

The girls jumped down from their trees.

"So what are we doing next sensei?" Naruko asked excitedly.

"You'll be doing water walking. It basically has the same principals as tree climbing, except to need to mediate the amount of chakra you use in conjunction to the flow of the water." Kakashi explained. "There's a small pond over there. Train there."

Naruko nodded, then ran in the direction her Sensei was pointing, with Natsune and Kuro walking after her.

"Sasuke, sitting around won't help you climb trees." Kakashi said teasingly.

Sasuke pulled a whiney face.

* * *

"Excuse me, Tsunami-san. Why's there a torn picture on the wall? It's like someone purposely ripped it." Naruko inquired, standing up from the table after they had all eaten dinner to get a better look.

_'Inari-gaki was looking at it during dinner'_

Silence adorned the table as Tazuna and Tsunami wore depressed looks on their faces, while Inari stood from his seat.

"Tha-that's my husband..." Tsunami admitted.

"He was named the hero of this village." Tazuna told the shinobi.

Inari appeared unable to listen anymore, and he stormed out of the room, his mother crying after him, before she turned and yelled at her father for mentioning 'that man' infront of Inari, and chased after her son.

The was a brief silence.

"What's up with that kid..." Natsune asked nonchalantly.

The ninja listened intently as Tazuna went into a full on explanation on how Inari met the hero of their village. A man called Kaiza had saved Inari from drowning, and after receiving a corny speech about men being tough, Inari had the upmost respect for him. The two became very close, with an almost 'father and son'-like bond, so when Inari brought him home, he was accepted as part of the family. He explained how Kaiza had saved the entire village. A torrential downpour had threatened to overflow the dams and flood the village, but Kaiza had leapt into deadly rapids to tie a rope to the dam, then had everyone pull on the rope to close the dam, saving the village.

"But then, Gatou arrived, which led to the incident."

'Incident?'

"What happened exactly?" Kakashi asked, his one visable eye squinting in interest.

Tazuna shivered. "Infront of everyone, Gatou executed Kaiza..."

"Wh-what?" Naruko wore a look of horror and shock, as did the rest of the Genin, even Natsune.

"He had been tied to a cross with his arms decapitated, then one of Gatou's henchmen..." Tazuna couldn't bring himself to say it. "After that, Inari changed. The whole village changed. Gatou had made it clear that there would be no heroes."

Silence once again filled the room, this time interrupted by Natsune standing from her seat. "Naruko, we're going to train. Now."

With that, she left the room.

Blinking, Naruko grinned. "Alright!"

Naruko ran after her, shutting the door behind her, leaving behind a confused Tazuna, as he, Kakashi and Kuro stared at the closed door.

"Don't be offended."

Tazuna looked at Kakashi.

"It's just Natsune's odd way of caring."

* * *

The next morning, Natsune was leaning against a tree by the lakeside where Naruko and Kuro had been practising their water walking the previous day, Natsune not needing to for obvious reasons. Resting her head on her lap, once again, was Naruko, the blonde asleep after falling unconscious from chakra exhaustion last night.

Natsune smiled fondly at the still girl, running a hand gently through her golden locks. 'Just like that night...'

She was broken from her thoughts when she heard the rustling of leaves coming from the bushes surrounding the lakeside. Carefully, she lay Naruko on the ground and dropped into a defensive stance infront of her, an intimidating scowl crossing her features, expecting anything. Except for maybe a young woman carrying a basket to come stumbling out of the brush.

Natsune blinked, and stood from her stance, but had to control herself from attacking when she recognised the chakra signature of the woman infront of her. The hunter nin that saved Zabuza. Keeping her guard up, the red-head assumed a relaxed pose.

"Who are you?" She asked with a cool assertiveness.

The young woman looked at her, seemingly not noticing her beforehand, and Natsune managed to catch the faint flinch in the woman's posture when she obviously recognised her as one of the ninja that had been fighting Zabuza. Looking behind Natsune, the woman recognised Naruko as the girl who had captured Zabuza in her 'Suirou no jutsu'. Natsune could tell the woman had decided to play it safe and be friendly, assuming Natsune hadn't recognised her.

"Ah, I apologise." The young woman smiled kindly, and indicated to Natsune and Naruko. "Was I interrupting anything."

Understanding what she meant, a small blush spread over Natsune's features. "N-no! She's just sleeping after what we were doing last night! No! I mean- Gah!"

Natsune stopped panicking when she heard the woman laugh at her antics, and upon further inspection of the woman's features, Natsune concluded that she was an absolute beauty.

"So what's a beauty like you doing in the woods in the early hours of the morn?" The woman asked after she stopped laughing.

"I should ask you the same thing..." Natsune told her.

The woman smiled at the compliment. "Thank you, but you must know that I am a boy."

"Eh?.." Natsune stared blankly at the boy.

He smiled. "My name's Haku. And yours?"

Shaking her head, Natsune regained her senses. "Natsune. So why are you here?"

Haku sighed. "I have been collecting herbs for a friend who is ill."

'I bet he's ill...' Natsune thought grimly, knowing who Haku meant.

"Anyway, I have collected enough. I just came here to look over the lake. I find peace when I do so." Haku confided in Natsune. "Well, I must go. Goodbye, Natsune-san."

With that, Haku left the way he came.

'He doesn't seem too bad...' Natsune thought sedately.

"Mmn... Super pocky deluxe packet..."

The red-head sweatdropped at Naruko's sleep induced slur, remembering to wake the girl up so they could continue training.

* * *

"Hey! Guess who I met in the woods today! You're in for a bi~g surprise!" Natsune exclaimed in mock enthusiasm as she casually meandered into Tazuna's house carrying Naruko in piggyback style, catching the attention of everyone sitting aroundthe table.

"Where've you two been?" Sasuke asked with concern in his voice. "We were worried. You haven't been here in over a day."

"We've just been training." Natsune placed Naruko's sleeping person the last available chair.

"You have to make sure not to train too hard or you'll die." Kakashi warned the red-head.

"I know." Was the simple reply given, causing the Jounin to sweatdrop.

Tazuna chuckled scratching his neck. "I've worn myself out working at the bridge today too. At any rate, it's nearly complete."

"You shouldn't push yourselves so hard, all three of you." Tsunami scolded Tazuna and Natsune, the latter of which just shrugged it off.

"Why do you train so hard! No matter how hard you try, you're no match for Gatou's men!"

All eyes landed on Inari after his outburst, which then continued.

"No matter how hard you work, when facing the strong, the weak get killed!"

Tazuna and Tsunami looked at the child with wide eyes, Kakashi and Sasuke wore surprised looks, and Kuro and Natsune were indifferent.

"I don't care what you think boy." Natsune said nonchalantly.

Inari stood from his seat and pointed at Natsune. "What the hell do you think you know about me!? I'm different from you! You just sit around acting all cool with that arrogant look on your face! You have no idea how hard life can be!"

Inari stopped when Natsune rose from her seat slowly. "I would shut up boy. You're not the star of a mediocre tragedy. At least you knew you father, have a mother. There are two people here at least who have neither, and never have! So you go and cry, sissy. Because I couldn't give a crap."

She ended by shooting Inari an intense glare, making the boy flinch, then he turned and ran of crying. Natsune left the house, claiming she wanted to cool down. Kakashi quickly apologised for his student, explaining that neither Naruko or Natsune have had parents, not mentioning Natsune's reason. In all the confusion, no-one noticed Kuro leave the table.

* * *

Inari was in his room, sitting on the ledge of an open window which faced the ocean. His shoulders shook as he looked down at the second piece of the ripped picture downstairs, crying. Then the flutter of paper from behind him caught his attention, and he turned to see Kuro stood in the middle of his room.

_'Inari-gaki...'_

The boy sniffed, and looked away. "What do you want?"

He didn't expect Kuro to slam her pad down onto his head, making spin around, asking why she did that.

_'You can't read what I put if you look away...'_

Inari looked at the girl.

_'Go a little easy on Natsune'_

"Why should I!? She doesn't care about anything!"

_'From her reaction, I think you know she does'_

Inari looked down.

_'You need to understand that there are people that suffer and have suffered more than you'_

Inari glared at Kuro. "What do you mean?"

_'From what I gather, Natsune and Naruko have never known their parents, or any of their family'_

Inari's eyes widened from their glare.

_'My mother died... Killed like your father. I live with my father, like you with your mother.'_

Inari wore a face of slight regret at what he had said to them all earlier as Kuro continued to write her speech.

_'Unlike your mother to you, though, I am not treated kindly. I won't go into detail, but it's not pretty'_

Kuro lifted her T-shirt marginally so that Inari laid his eyes on a bruise that covered the entire lower left area of her stomach, standing out from her pale skin.

_'I can relate to you on how it feels to see a loved one getting killed before your own eyes'_

Inari's face scrunched up, as if he was holding back tears.

_'People suffer. It's the way of this world. Humans have to either adapt to that, or change it. My team is trying to change it for your village right now, so show some thanks'_

"But... Gatou is powerful..." Inari told the small girl, eyes filling with tears.

_'And so are we. Believe that this can change, and it will. We fight for what we want. Natsune is no different. She'll protect Naruko at all costs'_

Kuro turned and left the room, leaving Inari in silence, the boy taking in all of what she had told him.

* * *

"Mmm. Natsune... what time is it?.." Naruko asked without opening her eyes, shuffling around in her sleeping mat, slowly waking from her sleep the next morning.

No reply.

"Natsune?"

No reply.

"Eh?" Naruko opened her eyes, looking directly at the clock infront of her.

'8:27'

Naruko stared at the clock blankly, realisasion dawning on her.

"Gaarghjff! They left for the bridge without me!" She shot from her mat and hurriedly changed her clothes. "They could have woken me up so I didn't sleep in again!"

"Get away from my mother!"

Her scrambling and angry murmurs came to a stop when she her Inari's cry. Straight away, she shot to the nearest window to see who Inari was yelling at. Standing on the decking that led to the house stood two mercenaries, one who was topless, showing multiple tattoos etched across his chiselled body. The other was smaller than his collegue, and wore a large, baggy overcoat, with a beanie on his head. Naruko scowled when she spotted a tied up Tsunami in between the two of them, obviously being taken hostage. Her gaze then shot to Inari, who had been stood by the door, charged the two swordsmen. She then saw the swordmen preparing to draw their swords, and instantly open the window and leapt from the house, landing infront of Inari, stopping his charge.

"N-Naruko-san!" He cried in surprise.

"Inari. I understand that you want to save your mother. But you would have just been killed." Naruko told him, her voice serious.

"Naruko!" This time it was Tsunami's turn to shout out. "Please take Inari away from here!"

"And leave you to these cut-throats? No way!" Naruko yelled.

The tattooed merc sneered, unsheathing his sword just enough for Naruko to see the blade. "I'd be careful girlie. You could get cut."

Naruko grinned. "I could take both of you on at the same time. How about I show you the fruits of my training?"

The mercs dropped into simple swordmanship stances, prepared to unsheath their blades, but they had no time to react when Naruko flickered out of their view, reappearing above Tsunami's head, and kicking the two men in the head, sending them off both sides of the decking and into the water. Naruko landed beside Tsunami, finishing off some hand seals.

"Kyūkyoku Suirou no jutsu!"

She raised her arms so they covered her whole wingspan, then brought them into a cross over her chest, her fingers half pulled into a fist. In conjuction with her actions, the water around the two mercs, who had just resurfaced, became dense and trapped them in two seperate water prisons, which weren't connected to Naruko. The swordsmen began to struggle, but cried in pain the water pressure increased, almost crushing their bones.

"I wouldn't move." Naruko warned them, arms now by her sides. "The more you move the more pressure is added. You'll eventually be crushed, so don't move."

She turned to Tsunami and freed her from her bonds. "These guys'll keep until I get back. Stay safe, I'm going to help my friends."

With a nod from Tsunami, Naruko sprinted of in the direction of the bridge, not feeling to eyes of Inari staring after her.

'They're all incredible...'

* * *

Meanwhile, down at the bridge, the rest of Team Seven were fighting against the recuperated Zabuza, and Haku, who was wearing his hunter nin mask. Sasuke and Kakashi faced Zabuza in a brutal battle of strength, delivering and receiving blows. Kuro and Natsune were trapped within a dome made up of multiple ice mirrors, trapped by Haku. Kuro had initially be amazed that there was another ice user out there, but snapped out of her amazement when said other ice user began hailing her and Natsune with senbon. Tazuna was stood to the side, out of the way.

When the group had first arrived at the bridge, they were met with the sight of Tazuna's co-workers strewn around the bridge, alive, but badly hurt. Zabuza had then appeared, with Haku surrounding him. Mizu Bushins surrounded the group, which Natsune and Sasuke hastily destroyed, before the former and Kuro speed past Zabuza to engage with Haku in battle. At first the girls seemed to have the upper hand, matching Haku in speed and overpowering him two-to-one. The table turned, however, when Haku used the water on the floor of the bridge for a technique called 'Makyō Hyōshō', trapping the girls in mirrors made purely of ice, where they were at the moment.

When Kuro had been able to destroy some of the ice mirrors, Haku had also voice his surprise, but then told the girl that he regretted having to kill one of his own. Throughout the fight so far, Kuro had been unable to hit the masked boy with any of her attacks, the boy easily destroying the ice attacks before they hit him or the mirrors. Because of this, Kuro had mainly been protected by Natsune, the red-head also being forced play the defensive by Haku. She had been using a defensive earth jutsu called 'Setchi teikō no jutsu', to which thin pillars of earth rose in a 1.5m radius around the girls when Natsune placed her hands on the ground after making the necessary seals, effectively intercepting the thin weapons whenever Natsune spotted them. However, since she couldn't see behind her, the two girls were still being peppered by needles from behind, despite Kuro's attempts to deflect them with a smaller version of her 'Kōri kabe', which kept on being dispersed by Haku.

The speed the Masked boy didn't help matters either. He moved so fast that even Natsune had trouble keeping up, and in the each of the mirrors was Haku, which she had originally thought were clones, but later realised it was the boy moving between each mirror at ridiculous speeds.

The end result of these cumulated disadvantages were two girls with needles protruding from various places on their bodies, with one of them breathing heavily from excessive use of her chakra.

"You must see by now that you have no hope of winning this fight." Haku told weakened girls, leaning out of one of the mirrors.

"You can shove your mirrors up your ass!" Natsune growled

Haku shook his head. "You both are weakened by your injuries and you are low on chakra. It's a hopeless fi-!"

Haku was cut off when a large glob of water slammed into the side of his head, knocking him from his mirror and onto the hard concrete surface of the bridge. 'What in the-!?'

"Hey hunter boy!" Naruko said casually after landing on the surface of the bridge. "You got another girl to play with."

She shot forward towards the downed Haku, who quickly got up and retreated into one of his mirrors, Naruko skidding to a stop where he previously was.

"Naruko!" Natsune yelled from within the dome of Ice mirrors. "Merge! Now!"

"On it!" Naruko ran into the dome towards Kuro and Natsune, and then into Natsune's body, now being able to perform that part of the '

"I do not see the purpose of that action." Haku told Natsune, appearing in all of the mirrors once again.

Natsune smirked. "With Naruko in my body, her chakra is mine, so my reserves have just filled back up!"

"That won't get you anywhere."

"I hadn't finished!" Natsune ran at one of the mirrors. "Tarenken!"

Haku watched in shock as Naruko's arms sprouted from Natsune's punching arm's shoulder, the three fists impacting the mirror, shattering it. Natsune then spun on her heel, turning to another mirror and, with the same procedure, shattered that one. Haku growled in frustration at the loss of two of his mirrors, not having enough chakra to restore them like he had with the ones Kuro destroyed. Realising he was low on chakra, he lauching waves of senbon at Natsune, who retreated to the middle to protect Kuro, using her earth jutsu again to deflect the needles.

"That move doesn't work! You're vunerable from behind!" Haku exclaimed, sending a volley of senbon towards Natsune's back, only for them to be deflected by the earth pillars. "What!?"

"You forget that it's not only Natsune here now." Naruko informed the masked ninja, the top half of her body emerging from Natsune's back, grinning. "As long as I'm in her body, what I do effects her jutsu. So I can cover the blind spots."

Haku growled. "I know for a fact that you were out of chakra only yesterday, so it's impossible for you chakra to be fully replenished! I'll just keep wearing you down!"

Naruko's eyes widened. "How do you know that..."

"He ran into us by the lakeside after you'd fallen unconscious." Natsune whispered to Naruko.

Naruko fully immersed herself in Natsune's body. *Why didn't you attack him!?*

'You're safety was a bigger priorety.'

Natsune was pulled from her discussion with Naruko when the amount of senbon increased in numbers, needing all of her focus to protect her and Kuro. Naruko also used all of her concentration to detect kunai from behind.

"You won't last much longer at the rate you're going." Haku told them in an almost overcalm voice.

Grim, Natsune knew the boy was right and, if there was any doubt, the boy's prediction was affirmed when a senbon needle struck her in the leg.

*Natsune!*

Naruko's hands shot from different parts of Natsune's body again and again, deflecting the kunai that made it past Natsune's jutsu, which was becoming less effective due to Natsune growing tired from exhaustion, losing focus.

She was brought from her tired state after she felt Naruko's presence leave her body, and she noticed that the needles had stopped flying. Turning, her blood ran cold when she saw Naruko sprawled out on the cold concrete, her eyes wide in shock as blood spurted from a vital artery in her neck. Naruko had been forced to remove the top half of her body from Natsune to deflect senbon that were heading for Kuro, and when she turned, she saw a senbon heading for Natsune's head. She had thrown her body infront of the senbon, which sliced past her subclavian artery in her neck, blood instantly spurting from the wound, but missed Natsune's head due to a slight redirection by Naruko. The blonde had then fell from Natsune's body, eyes wide in surprise.

"Nat... sune..."

"Na-Naruko!" Natsune and Kuro shot to her side, both with worried and scared looks, forgetting and ignoring Haku, who then spoke.

"The girl will die honourably, protecting you."

Natsune shivered. "N-no. No. Naruko! Why did you protect me!?"

Naruko sent her a weak chuckle, her face growing pale. "You said it yourself, Natsune. We're partners. We back each other up..."

Natsune pressed her finger against the cut, trying her best to stem the bleeding, but all for nought.

"Natsune stop... It won't work." Naruko told her weakly.

Natsune looked to the ground, shoulders shaking as she fought back tears. "I was meant to protect you... I wanted to protect you... I can't even do that..."

Naruko gave her a weak smile, her face now deathly pale. "Natsune..."

Naruko wasn't able to finish her sentence, her head rolling to the side, her body lifeless. Kuro looked away, holding back tears, and Natsune just kept yelling no at the top of her voice. However, in their grievances, neither of the girls noticed the wound on Naruko's neck close up.

Natsune stop yelling, her body just shivering. "Kuro..."

The girl looked at her.

"Look after Naruko..."

Kuro nodded, and to that, Natsune slowly rose to her feet, turning to Haku, who was currently in only one mirror, her red chakra beginning to leak out of her. "You..."

"She died with honour." Haku said calmly.

"You..." Natsune growled out, ignoring him, then her head shot up, eyes wide and teeth gritted. "I'll fucking rip you to shreds!"

Haku flinched at the red-head's distorted voice, taking in her appearance. The pupils in her normal red eyes had become vertically slitted, her whisker marks had become thicker and denser, and her canines had grown even longer. The chakra that had been leaking out formed the large head of a roaring fox around her person.

Kuro gazed at the image with horror, know what that entity was. 'Kyuubi...'

Haku prepared to move if he was attacked, acknowledging the new threat that Natsune was. He didn't expect Natsune to disappear, then re-appear infront of his mirror, swiping at it with her left hand, effectively shattering it. Haku managed to escape from one of the shattered pieces, about to move to another, but was stopped when Natsune's foot connected with his face with incredible force, sending him flying away from the dome of mirrors.

Back with Kuro, the girl watched Natsune run rampant after the masked boy, kicking and hitting him in every direction. However, she was distracted from her horror induced gazed when she heard a stuttered breath from Naruko next to her. Eyes widening in joy, she quickly reached for her pad and began writing.

Haku received another kick to his mask, which finally broke off, and was sent hurtling ten metres away, before roughly skidding along the ground to a stop. Struggling to his knees, he saw Natsune stand a few metres away.

"I'm going to enjoy mutilating that pretty face of yours!" Natsune growled as she threw herself towards Haku, but was thrown to the side when Kuro's pad hit her in the side of the head.

"What the hell!?" Sitting up, and now her normal self, Natsune read what Kuro had written.

'_Naruko is alive! :D'_

Natsune instantly looked over to where Kuro and Naruko was, and breathed a happy sigh of relief when when she saw Kuro helping Naruko sit up, the still pale, but alive, blonde sending her a sheepish wave.

Natsune sighed. "I'm glad..."

"Are you going to kill me? Where's the intenstity you have just then?"

Natsune's eyes landed back on Haku, before she looked away again. "I no longer have a need to use it. Naruko's alive. Plus, she moved in the way of a non lethal attack, didn't she."

"Yes..."

"Then I have nothing against you." Natsune looked fondly over to where Naruko and Kuro were at.

"I ask of you. Please kill me."

Natsune's head whipped round to face Haku. "Why the hell would I do that!? I don't kill helpless prey!"

"I have failed Zabuza-san. I will be of no more use to him, so i have no more meaning in life. He has no need for the weak." Haku spoke solemnly.

Natsune gritted her teeth. "Is that eyebrowless freakshow the only person important to you?"

"I had loved ones. Parents. They're dead. My father killed my mother in the bloodline purge within Mikugakure. Ask your white-haired friend about it. She may know things." She told Natsune, who wore a confused look at the mention of the purge. "My father killed my mother, and I killed him. At that moment, I realised the most painful thing. I am unwanted in this world."

Haku's statement cause Natsune's eyes to widen.

'He's like Naruko was...'

Haku continued. "Zabuza-san took me in because of my bloodline. Everyone hated it. He desired it. I was so happy. I was useful to someone. Now I am useless, Natsune-san, please kill me." Haku bowed his head in submission.

"Are you stupid?.. You think that because you lost a single battle, you're useless?"

Haku's head shot back up, staring at Natsune in disbelief.

"You can find a new purpose. Let me tell you a secret. I'm a demon, my initial purpose was to cause chaos and destroy, but then I was sealed within that girl over there." Haku followed her gaze to Naruko who was being checked up on by Kuro. "I saw what she lived through. A life similar to yours. And I changed. My new purpose now, is to protect that girl with my life. You can change yours as well."

"But, Zabuza-san-"

Haku was interrupted by slow clapping that broke the silent air of the mist, reaching the male ninja in the other fight, Kakashi stopping his Raikiri, which had been aimed at Zabuza, who was contricted in Sasuke's ninja wire. Everyone looked to the source of the noise to see a short, gray haired man wearing glasses and a black suit, with rows upon rows of mercenaries behind him. All of them had got to the bridge via boat, and were standing at the unfinished end of the bridge. The people able to move raised their guard to the new threat.

"Gatou..." Haku whispered warily.

"Huh?" Natsune stared blankly at the short man. "That little rat's Gatou?.."

The man stopped clapping and sneered. "Zabuza-san, you seem to be having some trouble. You and your lackey not being able to defeat one man and some kids."

When Gatou mentioned that, Zabuza turned his gaze to where Haku had been fighting the konoha kunoichi, and saw Haku kneeling on the floor with an exhausted look on his face, next to a the red-head who fought him. He then saw the small white haired girl helping the blonde, who had trapped him in their previous encounter, hobble away to a safe distance from Gatou and the mercs.

"Haku lost..." He breathed out.

Gatou continued. "Anyway, plans have changed, Zabuza-san. Well, actually they were always like this. I'm going to have you and your lackey killed here. I never intended on paying you."

"What!?" Zabuza sent a murderous glare towards Gatou.

"Hiring normal ninja is expensive and they may betray me, so I hire missing nin that are easy to dispose of afterwards. I let the ninja fight each other, grow weaker, then kill them in their weakened state. A great plan that saves me money, isn't it?"

Natsune sent Gatou a look of disgust. "Is he always like this?"

"Yes." Haku answered coldly.

With Zabuza, the man looked to Kakashi. "Sharingan Kakashi. This fight is over. I have no reason to go for Tazuna, so you are not my enemy. In fact, we have an enemy in common, no? That makes us allies."

Kakashi nodded in agreement, nodding to Sasuke to let the missing nin free, who then picked up his cleaver and set it on his shoulder.

"Haku!" The boy looked over to Zabuza. Get over here were it's safe. You're in no fit state to fight."

Haku nodded and headed in his direction, Natsune supporting him, and sitting him down next to Naruko, who was now beside Tazuna at the side of the bridge.

"So Kakashi. How about we work together to kill this annoying rodent? Normally I'd be able to do it myself, but I'm injured." Zabuza admitted.

Kakashi nodded. "Happily. Sasuke, Kuro, Natsune, protect Tazuna and Naruko!"

Sasuke and Kuro nodded, but Natsune didn't seem happy.

"Bull to that!" Natsune met the eye of Kakashi. "I'll protect Naruko by killing the guys before they reach her!"

Kakashi looked at the girl warily.

"Kakashi. The Hokage may have said that a shinobi's job isn't all about killing. But..." Her sadistic grin masked her features. "... it has plays a big part of it!"

Kakashi sighed. "Very well."

Gatou flinched and ran past the crowd of mercenaries. "Enough talking! Kill them!"

One merc scoffed at the three shinobi infront of them. "Hah! Two injured shinobi and a kid think they can take us all on!?"

Natsune's grin widened as she brought her hands into a cross seal. "Who said there was one kid? Kage Bushin no jutsu."

The merc's confident smile fell when over a hundred Natsune's appeared behind the three shinobi, and all the mercs panicked when eight Kakashi Kage Bushins appeared, and five Zabuza Mizu Bushins.

"I think there's enough now." Zabuza said, ripping off the bandages covering his mouth, showing jagged teeth mashed together to form a malevolent smirk.

The unbalanced mix of reals and copies charged the mercs, easily breaking through their lines, slaughtering each one. The real Zabuza pushed ahead of his newfound allies and charged a terrified Gatou, cleaver poised to strike. Gatou barely had time to shout out in fright when Zabuza swung is blade across, cleaving the man cleanly in half, then kick the two halves into the sea below. He muttered a 'good ridance' before rejoining the fight.

Not long later, Zabuza, Kakashi, and Natsune stood amongst the bodies of most of the mercenaries, some managing to escape on the boats they arrived in. The former two were breathing hard, but sent each other a nod of appreciation. Natsune was on her knees, the same grin on her face as she took in what was, to her, a wonderous moment.

Kuro and Sasuke watched, disturbed by what they had just seen, as Kakashi and Zabuza walked back towards them, Kakashi dragging along a reluctant Natsune. Naruko had fallen unconscious from blood loss, but was otherwise unharmed, and Haku walked up to Zabuza.

"Are you ok Zabuza-san?"

The missing nin nodded. "Are you? You look like you took a massive beating."

Haku nodded in the affirmative.

"However," Zabuza grunted, "Were do we go now? All this ruckus would have attracted real hunter nin from Kirigakure."

"Kakashi, can they come to Konoha?" Natsune asked.

Kakashi grew a thoughtful expression. "Perhaps. Zabuza would need time on probation first due to his crimes. Hokage-sama wouldn't mind at all after that. And I'm sure that the council will allow it if the last Uchiha promotes it as well. No offense Sasuke."

The raver haired boy shrugged. He knew of the councils worship of the 'Last Uchiha'. To be honest he found it annoying.

"Haku-kun. Were you originally a part of Kirigakure?" Kakashi inquired with the boy, who shook his head. "The Haku will be accepted instantly. Especially with his skills."

"So it seems you can come." Natsune told the older boy. "And you get to stay with browless."

Haku nodded happily and turned to Zabuza, who had been glaring at Natsune for the nickname. "I'll still be able to be your tool, Zabuza-san."

Zabuza stared at the boy. "... No."

Haku looked at him in shock.

"You are no longer my tool. You will be my comrade." Zabuza told him. "That is your last order as my tool. And just call me Zabuza, the san can get annoying."

Haku nodded happily. "Yes, Zabuza-san! Oh, sorry!"

The bandaged shinobi told him to relax, then lightly slapped the back of his head. Haku then looked to Naruko, who was coming to.

"Naruko-san. I apologise for placing you in danger." Haku bowed to the girl, who blinked wearily.

"Ahisfine..." The girl slurred out, light-headed from the lack of blood.

Kakashi clapped his hands together. "We'd better get back."

Everyone present nodded.

* * *

When the ninja and Tazuna got back to the house, they stayed for a few more days so that their injuries could heal properly, Tazuna happily providing them with their necessities, claiming it was the least he could do seeing as they'd freed their village. Now, fully healed an back to full strength, Team Seven, along with Zabuza and Haku, were walking along the recently finished bridge, bidding goodbye to the people of the small village.

"So," Haku sidled up besides Natsune. "Is Konoha nice?"

"Yep! You'll fit right in!" Natsune told the boy.

"I see, that's good."

"Yeah I mean, there're tonnes of freakshows there already."

"Eh?.."

* * *

And finished! Urgh parts of this were fairly hard to write, writers block plagued me throughout the whole first day of writing this chapter...

FIRST OFF! I added the bug naughty f-word because it seemed fitting, considering Natsune's personality and her affection towards Naruko. Seeing her 'die' would make her pre~tty mad.

Secondly, a little insight into Kuro(the OC)'s history and life was shown halfway through the chapter. Did I do good Lilese? :3

Well, for the japanese used, here're the translations:

Gaki-brat

Kyūkyoku Suirou no jutsu-Ultimate water prison jutsu:

An upgrade from the normal water prison jutsu, not needing a connection to the user, and is able to crush an enemy, similar to Gaara's sand. Naruko's original jutsu.

This is a red penguin saying goodbye!


	5. Chapter 5

Hi guys, a red penguin here with another (but late ;(... sorry) update. This is the start of the chuunin exam arc :D been looking forward to writing this! However, once again, I was plagued by writers block while trying to find a way to start the chapter, seeing as I needed to include Zabuza and Haku's integration with the village... So apologies if you find it a bit tacky. :/

Also, updates will become slower and less frequent now due to school starting tomorrow and homework and GCSEs and general time consuming stuff that annoys me. ._.

Anyway, here's the chap.

* * *

"Why are we back to doing these crappy missions again!?" Natsune exclaimed in displeasure, throwing her arms up into the air in frustration.

She and the rest of Team Seven were all walking back to the Hokage building after completing another D-rank mission, which consisted of weeding and watering an elderly woman's garden, then harvesting her potatoes she was growing for her beef stew.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad, Natsune." Naruko said in an attempt to calm her partner. "We got a free meal out of it!"

"It wasn't that bad!?" It was Sasuke's turn to yell. "I was chased around that woman's garden by a full hive of wasps after Kuro kicked their hive away from where she was working!"

The white haired girl gave Sasuke the peace sign, her face blank as always.

Natsune brought a hand to her chin and struck a thinking pose and look to her right. "Well the stew was delicious..."

"Are you even listening to me?.." Sasuke mumbled.

_'I am'_

"I still haven't forgiven you..."

Kuro looked away innocently.

It had been two weeks since Team Seven returned from the mission to wave, alongside Zabuza and Haku. After giving the Hokage a full report of the mission, including the reason for the missing nin and his subordinate being with them, the old kage had accepted Zabuza's request for the two to join the village as active ninja. He had told the two that they must spend a short time on probation, so their loyalty would be proved, commissioning Zabuza to a month, Haku only a week. At the beginning, there had been complaints from the council about having foreign and dangerous shinobi living in Konoha, but, as Kakashi had predicted, words of approval from 'the Last Uchiha' had them practically greeting the two ninja with roses and a 'welcome home' doormat. The Hokage had provided them with a temporary home for the two new Konoha residents, which they could live in until they were able to afford a better place.

Kuro especially had benefitted from the two ninjas' integration into the village, as she now had Haku who, after completing his probation, had willingly helped her with her jutsu. With Haku being a master of the Hyouton kekkei genkai, Kuro had noticably improved the strength of her techniques and her speed under the feminine boy's tutelage, even if it was just under a week of training. With the boy's help, she had mastered the jutsu she already knew, learned another, and made one of her own, though she had not mastered it just yet.

The thing that had irritated Natsune, though, was the fact that, since the wave mission, all the team had been assigned was D-rank missions.

Back to the present, Kakashi was happily walking beside his team, nose-deep in his favourite smut novel, absently listening to the comedic chatter the spouted from his students' mouths. His attention was torn from his book when he saw the shadow of a bird that was flying overhead. Stopping and looking up, he tilted his head in recognition of the white hawk, and turned his focus to his team, closing his book with a loud 'paf', gaining the attention of the Genin.

"Alright. How about you guys go and do your own thing? I'll deliver the mission report on my own." Kakashi suggested.

_'So kind!'_

"That's fine by me." Sasuke told him casually.

Naruko eyed her Sensei warily, but wasn't able to comment on his unusual act of kind of kindness, being distracted by Natsune wrapping her arms around her waist and pressing against her from behind.

"Naruko~... How about we go and have our own fun? Just me and you..." The red-head whispered slyly into her ear, the moving to lick the nape of a blushing Naruko's neck, but pouted when the blonde broke free of her grip, telling her to stop.

Kakashi watched with mild amusement, then nodded to his team. "See you guys later."

He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Well, I'm going home, I need to rest." Sasuke told his teammates as he headed off down a street that branched off from the one they were walking on.

"Come on~ Naruko! Let's go somewhere~!" Natsune pleaded in a teasing voice, wrapping her arms around one of Naruko's.

"N-no!" Naruko broke free of Natsune's grip and ran down the street, her red-headed twin in hot pursuit.

Kuro stood at the side of the street, watching the two run up and down the street. Then, Naruko skidded to a stop, Natsune not noticing in time and ran right past her, straight into what had made Naruko stop. She collided with something tall and solid, then fell to the ground.

"Aah what the hell Naruko, you could have warned me..." Natsune whined, rubbing her sore bum.

"Hey. That hurt."

Natsune looked up as the thing she bumped into talked. It was a boy only a couple of years older than Naruko, who was wearing what seemed like a full body catsuit. Purple war paint patterned his face and an oddly shaped object wrapped in bandages hung on his back. Just behind him to his right was a sandy blonde girl with her hair in four messy ponytails,

carrying a giant fan on her back.

"What are you staring at?.." Natsune asked the boy blankly, then growled as he picked her up by the front of her clothes. "The hell? Let go!"

"Natsune!" Naruko cried as Kuro walked up next to her.

"Oi, Kankuro, let go of the kid." The girl beside Kankuro told him.

"No way! The brat ran into me and didn't even blink an eye!"

Natsune grinned smugly. "I'd do as she says."

"Why the hell should I!?" Kankuro questioned.

"You could get burned." Natsune warned him, raising a hand and gripping the wrist of the hand that was holding her up, causing Kankuro to yell in pain and yank his hand away, releasing Natsune.

Looking at his wrist, Kankuro's eyes widened when he saw a burn mark in the shape of a hand where Natsune had grabbed him. "You little bitch! I hate brats like you the most!" He reached behind him and slung the bandaged object around to his side, resting a hand on a brown tuft at the top.

"You're going to use Karasu for this!?" The girl next to Kankuro exclaimed in disbelief.

Kankuro stopped when a new voice spoke up. "Kankuro stop it. You're an embarrassment to the village."

Everyone turned their gaze to a short red haired boy standing upside down on a nearby tree's branch. The boy's hair was short and spiky, pulled down by the force of gravity, and he had the kanji for love tattooed onto the left of his forehead. A large gourd was hanging from his back, slung across his left shoulder by a brown sash.

At the sight of the boy, Kankuro's grip on 'Karasu' seemed to falter as he suddenly acted very nervous. "Ga-Gaara..."

'He's good. I barely noticed him.' Natsune thought to herself. 'Though, his chakra...'

Naruko and Kuro just gawked at the boy, not noticing his presence one bit before he first spoke.

The spiky haired boy continued. "Losing control of yourself in a fight. How pathetic... What do you think we came to Konoha for?"

Kankuro pointed at the girls of Team Seven. "Listen, Gaara, they started it, and-"

"Shut up." Gaara sent Kankuro a small glare. "Or I'll kill you."

Natsune smirked. 'I like this kid.'

'What kind of reasoning is that!?' Naruko stressed to herself.

"Ok, I'm sorry..." Kankuro raised his hands in submission.

"I'm also really, really sorry." The blonde next to him said, a nervouse smile on her face.

Gaara ignored them and stared at Natsune. 'To be able to injure Kankuro. That girl's good. But why is mother so scared of her?'

The red-head disappeared in a swirl of sand, only to reappear next to Kankuro and the girl. "We may have arrived early, but that doesn't mean we can play around."

Kankuro flinched. "I-I know that."

"Let's go." Gaara made to turned away, only to stop at the sound of Natsune's voice.

"Aaah-ta-ta-ta-ta! Hold up!"

"What?"

"You're Sand shinobi right?" At Gaara's nod she continued. "Well, as I recall from my brief lesson in the alliance between Konoha and Suna, which I admit I mostly slept through-"

"Get on with it." Gaara told his fellow red-head.

Grunting in annoyance, Natsune did so. "While you're allies, you're not meant to enter our village without a good reason."

Naruko nodded in agreement. "State your purpose, or we will be forced to take you in."

_'Do we have to?..'_ Kuro was eyeing Gaara with distaste.

The sandy blonde scoffed. "You haven't heard? Talk about clueless."

She flashed the girls a pass. "We're here for the Konoha chuunin selection exams."

_'Tests...'_

"Oh yeah, I forgot about those. I heard the old man talking about them once." Naruko said, vaguely recalling that moment.

Natsune shrugged. "Well, you've got a reason. Bye."

This time Natsune went to turn, but then stopped at Gaara's voice.

"You. You intrigue me. Mother seems to be scared of you."

Natsune smirked. "Shukaku has always been a big crybaby. I guess there's no difference, hmm? Jinchuuriki-kun."

The eyes of everyone present widened in shock or surprise, even Gaara's to an extent.

"How do you know about Gaara's status as a Jinchuuriki?.." Kankuro asked warily.

"Who knows?" Natsune shrugged again, looking away, before looking back at the three Sand Genin with a ferocious look in her eye, sending Killing Intent towards them. "Maybe I'm a demon?.."

Kankuro and the girl flinched at both Natsune's statement and the Killing Intent, while Gaara frowned, hearing his 'mother' wail in fright even more.

"Bye~." Natsune bid the three goodbye and walked away with Naruko and Kuro, the ice girl not affected by her statement at all.

The day after went Natsune berserk on the bridge during the fight with Haku, Kuro had questioned the red-head about the potent chakra and the image of a fox that appeared over her head. Natsune told her the truth about who she was, and, while she was intimidated at first, Kuro got over it, understanding that it was the same Natsune that cared for the ones she held close dearly, and realising the only reason for her outburst of anger was that her most loved one was 'dead'.

However, unnoticed by any of the Genin that were present, three figures had watched the entire scene from a different tree.

"So what do you think?" One of them asked.

"Not much... But I think we should keep out eyes on the two red-heads."

* * *

"How come we're always waiting for the others?.." Sasuke groaned as he leaned over the side of a small, red bridge that had unconsciously become Team Seven's meeting area as of late, arms hanging, his face a perfect mask of annoyance. "Naruko and Natsune I can understand to an extent, but Kakashi-sensei's got no reason..."

_'He's not that bad'_ Kuro was sat on the side of the bridge next to where Sasuke was standing, facing inwards.

"Kuro, I know you like Sensei, but you have to admit that he has no reason for his tardiness..."

Kuro's face reddened. _'I don't like Sensei!'_

"It's about as obvious as Naruko's undying love for pocky..."

Kuro spun away from Sasuke, hiding her red face from view, but not expecting what happened next.

"Boo..."

Both of the Genin jumped when Kakashi appeared on the bridge in a puff of smoke, but unfortunately for Kuro, it caused her to fall from her perch into the river below, a quiet gasp, one of the very few sounds she could actually make, escaping from her lips.

"Kakashi-sensei!?" Sasuke yelled in surprise.

"Yo..." Kakashi walked to the side of the bridge and look over. "You alright down there Kuro."

He received a blank, but seemingly annoyed, stare from the silent girl, who rose from the water and waded to the rocky shore. She then froze the water on her person, the ice then crumbling away to reveal a dry Kuro.

Kakashi's single visible eyebrow rose. "Nice trick. Now get up here, I need to tell you all something." He looked around. "Where're the other tw-!"

He was interrupted by a 'Tarenkyaku' to his side, delivered by the last two member of Team Seven, Natsune in Naruko's body, sending him flying off the bridge and onto land. Natsune split from Naruko once she had landed soundly on the ground.

"Ha! Bet you weren't expe-!"

The red-head was then cut off as she and Naruko fell to floor after two large cushions impacted both of their faces faces.

'Cushions!?' The thought of surprise rose in both Sasuke and Kuro's minds.

"Expecting that?" Kakashi emerged from behind a random tree at the side of the river, the Kakashi that had been hit now a dented log. "Turns out I was."

Both Naruko and Natsune rose from the ground with a disgruntled look, Natsune murmuring about 'stupid one eyed, spiky haired jounin'.

Kakashi ignored her. "Anyway, this may seen a bit sudden, but I've nominated you all for the chuunin selection exams."

He received mixed reactions from this. Sasuke and Kuro, who had been staring at the other two girls in amusement, both looked at Kakashi, Sasuke with a look of surprise, and Kuro just gave her usual stare, that seemed to have some nervousness mixed in. Naruko seemed excited at the new development, and Natsune was grinning in anticipation.

Kakashi lifted up four slips of paper and handed them out. "These are your applications. Now remember, these are just nominations, whether you take the exam or not is up to you."

The Genin inspected the forms while Kakashi continued. "Those who wish to take part in the exams should sign those applications and hand them in at room 301 in the academy building by 4pm tomorrow. See you later."

Kakashi disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"He made us wait all morning for that!" Sasuke grumbled.

_'He had to get the slips'_

"I doubt it takes two hours to grab a few pieces of paper." Natsune told Kuro as they all made their way back to the civilised area of Konoha.

"So!" Naruko clapped her hands. "I say we train together!"

Sasuke and Natsune both shrugged nonchalantly in agreement, but Kuro shook her head.

_'I have training with Haku in half an hour. I just need to grab something from home first'_

Nodding in acknowledgement, Naruko then moved to talk about random subjects, when a thought struck her. "Ne, Kuro-chan. Will either of you parents be home around this time?"

Kuro shook her head.

"What are they like? Are they nice?" Naruko continued to press for information.

At this, there was a small but unnoticed jolt in the quiet girl's pace, before she quickly scribbled words onto her pad and pointed to a random street. _'My house is this way'_

As Kuro rounded the corner, she faintly heard one thing Naruko said. "Kuro-chan's so lucky to have a family. I bet they're really cool!"

The white haired girl couldn't help but grimace and shake her head at how wrong the blonde was. She had only taken the path to avoid the question, so it would now take her longer to get home, and she'd been hoping to be in and out of the house before her father turned up.

Once at her house, she fished a key out from underneath a stone slab and entered, finding no-one at home, as per the norm for a few years now. Wasting no time in getting to her room, she hastily fished out the few necessities she needed for her training with Haku, and stuffed them into a small bag which she slung over her left shoulder. She turned to leave, but froze at the sound of her front door slamming open, and a loud voice emanating up the stairs.

"Kuro! You here!? Damn shitty brat, answer!"

At the sound of her drunken father's footsteps thundering up the stairs, Kuro hurriedly made her way to her open bedroom window, jumping onto the ledge and leaping out of sight.

* * *

"Hey, did you hear? For the first time in five years there'll be rookies in the chuunin exams." A boy with a bowl cut said in a over-enthusiastic voice.

A girl with brown hair tied into buns scoffed, throwing a kunai at a target, hitting the dead centre with ease. "It's probably some stubborn Jounins in a competition or something."

"Actually," A second girl with short, pink hair that had a bang that drooped over her left eye spoke up, "one of the rookie teams is meant to be students of Kakashi."

A boy with long brown hair who was leaning againat a tree smirked. "Sounds interesting."

"Hell Yeah!" The pink haired girl cried, slamming her fist into a tree, effectively felling it, and partially disintigrating the bark. "Gotta love fresh meat!"

The brown hair boy nodded. "Too true."

* * *

The next day, the Genin of Team Seven were nudging their way past crowds of Genin from both Konoha and other countries in the halls of the the ninja academy, trying to reach room 301.

"It's so crowded!.." Natsune groaned, once again getting bounced around.

"It would have been less crowded if you had arrived earlier and not made me and Kuro wait..." Sasuke deadpanned.

"We have our reasons!"

"No, Naruko has a reason, she's one with insomnia. And even then you could wake her up." Sasuke pointed out.

"Sasuke has a point there, actually." Naruko added, bringing a finger to her chin in thought. "Why do you never wake me up?"

Natsune pouted and looked away, crossing her arms. "I like the lie in..."

They were then distracted by a yell of pain and they looked ahead, seeing a crowd of Genin surrounding two older boys who were smirking at the person they had knocked to the floor, which turned out to be the boy with the bowl cut. They appeared to be guarding a door that was labelled '301'.

_'This is the second floor isn't it?'_

"Yep..." Sasuke said dryly.

One of the older boys laughed at the boy witht he bowl cut. "You plan to chuunin exams with that!? You should quit right now!"

"You're just a kid!" The other sneered.

One of the boy's teammates, the girl with buns in her hair, stepped forward. "Please... Let us through..."

One of the boys just smirked and delivered a backhand to her left cheek, sending her to the floor next to the boy with the bowl cut.

"Tenten!" One of their other teammates, the pinkette, exclaimed, who then turned to the older boys, preparing a fist. "I'll knock your brains out!"

"You idiots!"

The pink haired girl stopped in her tracks when the older boys were sent sprawling to the floor by a foot to each of their faces courtesy of Natsune, who then landed and faced the crowd of Genin.

"Are you all stupid!? This is the second floor! Can't you count!?" She yelled, pointing to the sign overhead.

"The three on that sign was a genjutsu put there by those two chuunin." Sasuke calmly informed the crowd, forcing his way through so he stood beside Natsune while indicating to the two lumps on the ground next to he red-head, which wear now larger and wearing chuunin flak jackets, though they were panned out on the floor with swirly eyes.

Natsune scoffed, a cocky smirk on her face. "If you didn't realise that then there's no point in entering the exams at all."

The pink haired girl spun so that her back was facing the two Natsune and Sasuke, and whacked a brown haired boy who had pale eyes with seemingly no pupils on the head. "Neji-baka! How did you not see that!? We just got showed up!"

Neji grunted, then growled in irritation. "Sakura it was of the plan, remember?.."

"Oh yeah..." Sakura wore a sheepish look.

"Natsune, Sasuke! Come on we need to get going!" Naruko shouted over the many murmuring Genin, jumping up and down so they could spot her small body.

She was stood with Kuro by the stairs to the next floor, and when the other two members of Team Seven joined them, they moved to head up.

"Wait! You with the red hair!"

"Urgh, why do they always want me?.." Natsune turned with a disgruntled look on her face, seeing the boy with the bowl cut standing before her.

Unconsciously she inspected the boy. He was wearing a tight, green spandex jumpsuit, bright orange leg warmers, and bandages that were wrapped around his hands and wrists. A Konoha hitae-ate was wrapped around his waist. Though his most stand-out features had to be his wide, bugish eyes, and the large bushy eyebrows that lay atop them.

Naruko stared at his brows in amazement. "So bushy..."

_'He scares me... The eyes...'_ Kuro partially hid behind Sasuke.

"I am Rock Lee!" The boy announced. "And as I recall, you are Natsune Kurama!"

"Yeeeees?.." Natsune looked at Rock Lee expectantly.

"Fight me! Right here!" He struck a nice guy pose, teeth glinting and his thumbs up.

"Aaaah no." Natsune answered abruptly, turning and heading up the stairs, her team following her, giggle or smiling at her blunt answer, and behind her, she left one Rock Lee that slumped down, depressed.

"You know. It would have been cool to see you fight." Naruko mentioned out of the blue. "Why didn't you?"

"There's only ten minutes until exams start." Natsune said with a shrug. "I doubt we can be late."

"That is a good point."

'Did you notice that scary boy's team?' Kuro spun slightly so the others could read.

Sasuke nodded. "They also seemed to have a team of four Genin."

"I did hear something about there being a five man team last year actually." Naruko admitted. "Including the Jounin that is."

"That must be Gai's team you're talking about. His team also has four Genin."

The four Genin look in the direction of the voice and saw Kakashi standing by room '301'. "So you all came, great."

Naruko raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well... If one of you had decided to give it a miss you all would have failed instantly." Kakashi told them.

"And you didn't tell use this at the bridge because?.." Naruko inquired, her left eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"Consider it a personal test from me."

"Urgh, whatever. I'm going in." Natsune nudged past Kakashi, the others following suit, each giving a small wave goodbye to their Sensei, who returned the gesture.

When the doors to the room opened, all eyes instantly swivelled to look at the four Genin. All ninety-one pairs of them.

"Holy~, that's a lot of people." Naruko mused, glancing around the room.

"All of these guys are taking the test?" Sasuke asked incrediously.

Natsune scoffed at the weak amounts of killing inten they were receiving. "These guys are pathetic, they don't even know what real killing intent is. I'd better show them..."

"Can you not do that, I'm nervous as it is..."

Team Seven looked to their right to see Shikamaru, a boy with black hair tied back into a pineapple shaped ponytail, grimacing at Natsune. Next to him was Chouji, a chubby boy that was currently digging into a packet of crisp.

Naruko's face lit up. "Shikamaru, Chouji! That means-!"

"Naru-cha~n!" Naruko was cut off by arms that wrapped around her neck from behind, which belonged to Ino, who the last member of Team Ten.

"Ino-chan!" Naruko spun in her friend's grip and hugged her tightly. "How've you been!?"

Natsune watched on as Naruko caught up with her old friend, a disgruntled look on her face, which Shikamaru saw.

"Jealous?" He asked, raising an teasing eyebrow.

Natsune blanked, and looked away. "Waa-psht, no! Why would I-no!"

"Alright! Found you! Everyone's here!"

Sasuke looked up from his conversation with Kuro to see another of his friends from the academy, Kiba Inuzuka, who was alongside his teammates, Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame, the three together making the tracking team of Team Eight.

Along with Naruko, Kiba had helped break Sasuke out of his broody shell after the near extinction of his clan, and stopping his obsession for revenge, something that would have eventually took over his life.

"Hey, Kiba!" Sasuke exchanged friendly a handshake with the dog boy, and gave a nod to the quiet Aburame, who reciprocated the gesture, as Hinata moved to speak with Naruko and Ino.

"Hey man!" Kiba grinned. "So all ten of the rookie Genin are here!"

Sasuke smirked. "You seem confident Kiba."

"We did plenty of training, we won't lose to you."

"Don't get too confident, mutt." Natsune walked up to Kiba, raising an eyebrow cockily. "You've got me to deal with."

"What makes you so sure?" Kiba shot back.

"Ask your doggie." Natsune pointed at Kiba's dog, Akamaru, who had been sitting on his owner's head, and still was, though only his eyes were visable, peeping over his head.

"Eh? Akamaru, what's up?" Kiba asked his partner, confused by the pup's behaviour.

All ten of the Genin ceased their individual conversations looked towards a white haired boy that had approached them. "Hey you guys should be more quiet. You guys are rookies right out of the academy aren't you?"

The male looked a few years older than the rookie Genin, and wore a pair of round glasses. All of the rookie ten gave him a weird look, except for Natsune, who eyed him warily, not liking his chakra signature.

"Who are you exactly?" Naruko asked.

"I'm Kabuto, but more importantly, look behind you."

The Genin did so, to see two Genin teams glaring daggers at them.

"They're from Amegakure. Quite renowned for their short tempers. Everyone's pretty nervous, so I'd keep it down."

"So have you been here before?" Sasuke asked.

"Indeed, this is actually my seventh time. The exams are held twice a year, so this is my fourth year." Kabuto told the Genin, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Wow you must really suck." Naruko held a hand over her mouth in a feeble attempt to hold back her giggles.

"Au contraire, I happen to be rather knowledgable." Kabuto pulled out a deck of cards. "How about I share some info with you rookies with my nin-info cards?"

"Nin-info cards?" Ino questioned sceptically.

"Basically cards that have info burned onto them with chakra. I even have info on the ninja in this room. Any requests?"

"How about Gaara, from Sunagakure?" Natsune requested. "And throw in Naruko and me so we can judge the accuracy."

Kabuto shrugged, selecting a card and channeling a small burst of chakra into it. "Gaara of the Desert. Mission history... eight C rank, a B rank. A B rank as a Genin!? I don't have much else as he's foreign, but it does say he's returned from every mission without a scratch."

Natsune raised an eyebrow in interest while Kabuto read out her card.

"Natsune Kurama. Mission history, eleven D rank, a C rank, and... An A rank!? As a Genin!" Kabuto seemed genuinly surprised at that, but shook his head to regain focus. "Powerful in tai and ninjutsu. Teammates are Naruko Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Kuro Tsukuba, a four man team due to Natsune's sudden arrival. It doesn't give a reason for the arrival though."

Kabuto then moved to Naruko's card. "Naruko Uzumaki. Mission history is the same as her teammates'. Proficient in ninjutsu, weak in taijutsu but improving."

"Seems fairly accurate." Naruko confirmed, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound. There are many outstanding Genin. Well, the Sound is a minor village created only last year so there isn't much info. The rest of the villages are filled with new talent."

"So. All the people here are..." Sasuke trailed off.

Kabuto nodded. "Yep, their all top elite Genin from their village."

"Tough crowd then, huh?" Natsune let out a loud breath, but looked amongst the gathered Genin, sensing an attack, not aimed at any of the rookie ten, but Kabuto.

Turning to warn him, she stopped when she saw the older Genin smirk, causing her to raise an eyebrow, her suspicions rising. At that moment, a boy with black, gravity defying hair jumped up out of the crowd and threw two kunai at Kabuto, who jumped back with aquired reflexes. He skidded to a stop a metre or so back, but was caught off guard when a hunched-over male, who's face was obscured by bandages, appeared in front of him, swinging at Kabuto with his right arm, which held a gauntlet on his wrist. Kabuto dodged with ease, a grin on his face, which fell when his glasses cracked and shattered.

"The hell!? He dodged that." Sasuke said in confused.

All of the rookie genin were shocked when Kabuto's eyes widened, and he proceeded to vomit on the ground.

_'That's disgusting...'_

Naruko and Ino ran to Kabuto's aid, just as the front of the room exploded into smoke. When it dissipated, it revealed rows upon rows of ninja, seemingly chuunin, and a tall man wearing a trench coat stood at the front, who addressed the collected Genin

"Quiet down you worthless bastards!" The man grinned. "Thanks for waiting. I am Ibiki Morino, the examiner for the chuunin exam's first exam."

He pointed towards the sound ninja that just attacked him. "You sound guys! Stop doing as you please before the exam. Do you want to fail already?"

"Sorry." The hunched sound ninja apologised. "We just got carried away."

Ibika scoffed. "Here's a good time to say this. There'll be no fighting in the exam. Even if you are allowed by an examiner, there'll be no killed of your opponents." He was interrupted by Natsune's whine of displeasure. "Any of you pigs that disobey my rules will be disqualified immediately. Do I make myself clear?"

The silence was a good enough answer for him, until one of the sound ninja, the one with spiky black hair, remarked on how easy the exam was going to be.

Ibiki continued. "We will now begin handing out exams. Instead of your current seating arrangements, you will all pick tabs which will have you seat number written on them. Once all tabs have been collected, we will begin handing out the exam sheets."

Groans eminated from the crowd of Genin, including some of the rookie ten.

"How troublesome..."

_'Why tests?..'_

When all Genin had taken their given seats, and the papers had been handed out, Ibiki regarded them again.

"Now, do not turn your tests over and listen carefully to what I'm about to say." He picked up a piece of chalk and pressed it to the blackboard behind him. "There are many important rules to this test. I'll write them on the board as I explain, and there'll be no questions allowed-"

"But-!" Natsune cut in.

"No."

"What if-!"

"No questions!"

"Urgh..."

"As I was saying..." Ibiki explained the first rule about the test having a point subtraction system, with each Genin starting with ten points, one for each question, and losing a point for each wrong answer. "The second rule, whether you pass or not will be determined by the combined scores of your teammates."

This received many unhappy moans.

"The third rule, is that during the exam, anyone caught by the testing officers for any sneaky activites or cheating will have two points deducted from their score. Anyone who loses all of their points will be asked to leave. Final rule, those that lose their initial points during the test or have no points at the end will because failed, along with the rest of their team. The test will last for one hour. Begin!"

* * *

Sat right at the back of the room, Naruko was sat slumped across her desk, her head in her arms and she half-heartedly glared at her test paper. It was only ten minutes into the exam and she had pretty much given up, the questions where impossible for any normal Genin to answer, and the only she was able to answer was the first one, a cryptogram.

One thing she had taken interest in was the fact that there were only nine questions on the paper, despite the proctor saying there were ten questions. Instead there was a note saying it will be asked fourty-five minutes into the exam.

Over the past ten minutes, she had also managed to decipher the really meaning behind the test. Ibiki hadn't given them the amount of teams that would pass the exam, which was encouraging cheating so they were guaranteed a place. That coupled with the fact they had chuunins inspecting the Genin for any mediocre cheating attempts meant that it was a test not of intelligence, but of their use of abilities to gain information. However, Naruko had no such abilities, hence the reason she was currently flopped on the desk. Actually, she realised that non of her team had any necessary abilities, and, knowing that they wouldn't score many point, she let out a loud groan.

'Thirty five minutes to go...' Naruko thought wearily, as she raised her head to inspect how other Genin were handling the test.

First she spotted Kuro, who, like herself, seemed to have given up. The girl had her feet resting on the desk as she leaned back, her eyes contently shut. Her eyes then searched for her other teammates, first landing on Sasuke, who appeared to be completing some of the questions, although it looked like he was having a hard time. As she moved her glance to Natsune, she couldn't help but giggle when the Genin next to the red-head did the old 'I dropped my pencil and will bend down to pick it up while looking at their paper' trick, and Natsune just turned and sent the boy an evil grin, a glint in her eyes, which were shadowed by her fringe. The boy then proceeded to fall of his bench, and him and his team were sent out, him losing the last of his ten points with that petty attempt.

She then scanned the room for her ex-classmates, finding them one by one. Kiba had Akamaru resting on his head, looking around at the surrounding Genins' test papers, and then yapping at his master, telling him the answers. Naruko wasn't sure what Shino was doing, as all he seemed to be doing was lifting a finger in the air, and writing down answers with his other hand. Hinata, and quiet but friendly girl who Naruko spoke to every now and again, was using her Byakugan to scan other people's test for answers.

Now looking around the room for another of the Konoha rookie teams, Naruko came across Ino, who, to the unknowing eye, appeared to be sleeping, her head resting on the desk. But with a small amount of knowledge on her techniques, Naruko guessed that she had inhabited another's body and was memorising their answers. It then looked like she was moving into Chouji's body and copying the answers down for him. Finding Shikamaru, she saw that he was having barely any trouble with the questions, though he did seem reluctant to even do the test.

Her gaze then turn upon the bushy browed boy that challenged Natsune. Rock Lee if she remembered correctly. It appeared that him and the pink haired girl were both receiving assistance from Tenten, as she recalled. The bun haired girl was using barely visible wire to adjust mirrors on the ceiling, though how she got them there Naruko didn't know. The mirrors were reflecting answer from people's test so that three of them could copy them. The last boy of that team was using the Byakugan, like Hinata was.

Finishing her quick scan of the rest of the Genin, Naruko decided a little nap would be appropriate, so she placed her head in her arms once again and dozed off. She was then broken from her dreams when half an hour later when Ibiki announced the start of the tenth question.

'Finally...'

"Now before I get to it, I need to go over the added rules."

'Wha?..'

"These rules..." Ibiki paced back and forth along the front of the classroom, then stopped glared at the Genin. "Are the rules of desperation."

Murmurs floated among the Genin, but were quickly ceased by Ibiki.

"First, the tenth question, you must decide whether to take it or not."

Naruko blinked. 'We have to decide!?'

All eyes turned to the blonde girl from Suna, who had stood from her seat. "Choose!? What happens if we choose not to!?"

Ibiki just smirked. "If you choose not to, you fail, as well as you teammates, simple as that."

"What the hell does that mean!?" A random Genin cried out. "Of course we'll take the next question!"

Ibiki ignored them. "The next rule. If you choose to take it but answer incorrectly, you the right to take any later chuunin exams."

Naruko's reaction were quite similar to most of the Genin in the room. Her eyes shot wide open and she wore a look of extreme trepidation, her gaze shooting towards Natsune, who noticed her and gave her a reassuring nod, dampening her worries. Although she couldn't kill off all of her fears.

"What the hell kind of a rule is that!?" Kiba shot from his seat, Akamaru clawing onto his hood for dear life. "There are people who have taken the exam before!"

Ibiki chuckled sinisterly. "You were unlucky. This year it's my rules. I'm giving you a way out. Leave now and come back next year. So let's begin the tenth question. Those that wish to leave, raise your hand."

Instantly four hands shot up, and the owners and their team left. Little by little over the next few minutes the number of occupants in the room grew smaller as more Genin raised their hands.

Naruko remained slumped on her desk, gripping the edge nervously as she stayed still thoughout the wait, trusting her partner's judgement. Though, she couldn't shake off the ever growing nerves that increase each time someone left.

Five minutes passed before Ibiki spoke again. "You chance to leave is now gone. For those of you that are remaining."

Naruko squinted in concentration.

"You all pass the first exam of the Chuunin exam!"

"What!?" Naruko couldn't help but practically leap from her seat in surprise at what just said. "Where the hell's the question!?"

Ibiki wore a large grin on his face. "There was no tenth question! Or you could say those choices were the tenth question."

The man then moved onto an explanation of the meaning behind the first nine questions after a Genin questioned the purpose of them in the first place. Just as Naruko had guessed, they were there to test the Genins' information gathering skills. Any Genin that were failed had mediocre skills, so didn't deserve the title of Genin.

"You made it through the entrance to the exam." Ibiki smiled. "Good luck."

Any celebrations were quickly cut short when a black ball of clothe smashed through the window. It quickly unfolded and was pinned up by kunai at the walls, revealing a woman who rolled out infront of it.

"I'm the proctor for the second exam! Anko Mitarashi! Let's go!"

The woman began to walk away. "Follow me!"

Ibiki peeped around the cloth wall. "Bad timing..."

* * *

Oh my go~d! Boy am I glad that's over an done with! This chapter was a pain in the arse to get written at times. I'm not too sure about the exam part, since there's not much difference from canon. I just wasn't able to think of anything. :(

Well, as I said at the top, expect slower updates due to schoolwork etc, but I will promise you all now, no matter how long it takes me to update, I will never abandon this fic! If I do I will hand each and every one of you a large mallet and you can all pummel me as much as you want! And I won't hold charges! :D

This is a red penguin saying goodbye!


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys! A red penguin here with another update, I'm not dead! Here is the forest of dea~th chapter, and there will be alterations with what happens to who, etc. (Minor Spoiler :P)

Just one thing today, as a shout out for a friend. Lilise, the owner of Kuro, has begun her own fanfic based around female Gaara, and her life in the sand village etc. It'd be great booster for her if you go and check her story out! The first chapter's up and it's looking good!

Thus ends the A/N, here's the chapter :) enjoy.

* * *

Around ten minutes since Anko's flamboyant arrival to the end of the first test, the crazed jounin lead the Genin to the second test, which happened to be at a large, dark, gloomy, and overall intimidating forest. If looks in itself derived some of the Genin of any confidence they may have held, the signs attached to the mesh fencing that surrounded the grounds robbed most of the others of theirs as well.

"Danger. Stay out. Instant death guaranteed..." Naruko raised herself from leant over position as she turned to her team and the rest of the present Genin. "Oka~y, too late to quit?"

Anko smirked. "Yep."

"Darn..." Naruko slumped over, trundling back to her team.

Ank turned to the collected Genin. "Ok listen up! Welcome to training grounds 44, also known as the Forest of Death. This lovely place here is where the second stage of the chuunin exams will be held."

Eyes turned back to the forest. Large trees the size of four story building towered the dirty and mossy floor, their canopies blocking almost all light from reaching it, creating an ominous blackness that seemed to draw the Genin in.

"I like this place." Natsune commented bleakly, gaining looks of disbelief from her teammates. "Naruko, we should move here."

"N-no way in hell!"

The proctor overhead the short exchange and smirked. "Don't get in over your head. I wouldn't think of living arrangements until after the exam. That is, if you survive it. There's a reason it's called the forest of death."

"'There's a reason it's called the Forest of Death.'" Natsune mimicked Anko, then scoffed and looked away. "You'll need more than that to scare me."

Natsune then quickly looked back at the jounin just in time to catch a kunai that was headed in her direction. Spinning then kunai on her finger, she opened her mouth to make another remark but stopped when she felt a presence behind her.

"As I said." Anko pressed herself against Natsune's back and leaned over her, as her teammate looked on his shock. "Don't get in over your head."

Natsune growled and ripped herself out of Anko's grasp, who then moved to address all of the Genin, pulling a wad of papers from the pockets of her trench coat and wafting them about.

"Before we start, I have these to hand out. They're basically disclaimers. There'll be deaths in this one, and I don't want to be held responsible for them."

"How nice of you..." Sasuke muttered blankly, grimacing.

"I'm going to explain the second test and then I'll hand these out. After that, you will go to that booth behind me." Anko pointed to a small wooden booth that was by the fence to the forest. "Now, the test..."

* * *

"So... Quick recap." Naruko juggled a heaven scroll between her hands as Team Seven stood infront of the twelfth gate into the forest. "Five days, get earth scroll off someone, don't die?"

Sasuke let out a nervous breath. "In a nutshell."

_'I should've failed the first test...'_ Kuro wore a displeased look on her face about their current situation.

Natsune smirked and plonked a hand on the shorter girl's head. "Stop worrying! Nothing bad's going to happen. We'll just grab a scroll and go. No biggie!"

Kuro didn't seem content with Natsune's assurance.

"How long until we set off?" Naruko inquired.

Her team shrugged.

Anko's voice called out. "Ten seconds until the beginning of the exam!"

"Huh, I guess in a second..." Natsune chuckled in amusement.

"Begin!"

The gates swung open and the four Genin disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

* * *

Team Seven slowed down once they felt they were deep enough into the forest, walking at a more casual pace as they continued to observe their surroundings. So far they hadn't come across any of the other Genin, and the only wildlife they'd seen were the odd small birds or insects. No danger.

"We need to take to the trees." Sasuke stated, stopping abruptly at the front of the group. At the looked of questioning he received, he indicated to a large patch of purplish moss that contained the odd mushroom. "Whatever spores those mushrooms are giving out are toxic, if the colour of the moss is any indication. If we're in the trees we'll be out of range of the spores. Meaning we'll probably live."

Natsune shrugged and walked towards the nearest climbable tree. "Whatever."

Kuro and Sasuke soon followed her lead, but all three were stopped by Naruko. "Hold up! Shouldn't we have a password or a question or something?"

Sasuke blinked. "Why would we need that?"

"Well, we could get split up, someone could disguise as us and..." She was interrupted by a loud cry of anguish that echoed through the whole forest. "... Y'know, that could happen."

"Point taken..."

"So what kind of question would we have?" Natsune asked.

_'Something we all know'_

"Kuro's right. Something only us four know." Naruko looked down in thought, along with the other three, before smacking a fist in her other palm. "Got it!"

Her teammates looked at her expectantly.

"Who does Kuro have a crush on!?" Naruko asked her idea as a tester.

"Kakashi-sensei."

"Kakashi."

_'I do not like him!'_

"Then we're all in agreement." Sasuke nodded. "If we ever get split up, ask that question to any possible imposter. If they get it wrong, assume the worst, no matter who they look like."

After receiving acknowledgement, Sasuke held up the scroll that Naruko had given him a while ago. "I vote for Natsune to hold the scroll, she's the strongest. Any objections?"

There were non.

"Ok then." Natsune took the scroll from Sasuke. "Where now the-"

She was cut off by a powerful wind that blew through the small clearing they were in, forcing all four of them to brace themselves against the gale. 'Enemies!?' Natsune had no time to think anymore when a large black object zoomed towards her, blown by the wind, and collided with her, knocking her away from her team.

"And there goes our scroll..." Naruko said blankly when the gale subsided, before noticing that it was only her and Sasuke standing in the clearing. "Where's Kuro-chan!?"

Sasuke grunted. "Damn it!"

A rustle to their left caught the two remaining Genins' attention, and they dropped into defensive stances and faced an overgrown hedge, only to see a disheveled Kuro stumble from within it.

"Kuro-chan! You're ok!" Naruko exclaimed in delight.

The white haired girl nodded and gave them both a small smile, which instantly wiped the faces of relief from both Naruko and Sasuke's faces.

"Wait..." Sasuke eyes Kuro wearily. "Who do you have a crush on?.."

"Kakashi." Kuro told them with ease, not a single hesitation showing in her soft voice.

That clarified it. Instantly Sasuke and Naruko both threw kunai towards the obvious imposter, who jumped back to avoid the deadly weapons, but was forced to dodge once again when two ice kunai shot towards them from their left side.

Another Kuro walked out from a mass of trees and leaves, and held up a familiar pad, still eyeing the imposter, albeit with a large blush on her face. _'I like Kakashi-sensei...'_

The fake Kuro grunted. "Of course, you can't speak. How foolish of me..." She raised her head high and gave the three an malevolent smirk, her eyes wide. "It seems I'll need a different method!.."

The fake Kuro disappeared in a burst of smoke to reveal a tall man with long black hair with a straw hat atop it, wearing a Hidden Grass Hitae-ate. He licked her lips with a disgustingly long tongue. "This'll be more fun than I expected."

* * *

"Holy crap that hurt..." Natsune ripped herself from the bark of a large tree, leaving an imprint behind, and looked around. "What the hell hit me?"

A loud rumbling distracted her from her queries and she looked for the source of the noise. Behind. She warily turned on her heel to see the largest snake she'd ever seen. It was coiled around most of the tree she had just broke free from, and still had most of it's body loose.

"Holy shit..."

Reacting quickly at the sound of the snake's loud hiss, Natsune leapt back to avoid large fangs, that were easily twice the size of her body, that plunged into the ground where she previously stood. The snake swiftly freed it's fangs and slithered towards the red-head at ridiculous speeds for it's size. Judging the reptile's movements, Natsune flipped over the it's head as it lunged for her, landing on and running along it's body, leaping from it's flailing tail to reach a high branch. However, she wasn't there for long as the snake's tail recoiled and slammed into her and the branch, sending both plummeting to the ground.

Natsune groaned in pain and slowly lifted herself up, pausing at the feeling of the ground shaking. "What now..."

When the shaking seemed to stop, Natsune hastily rolled away and shot to her feet, narrowly avoiding the same black object that threw her from her team.

"What the he-" She stopped mid-speech when the object vibrated and a mild chuckle eminated from it.

The object unfurled to reveal a hunched over male, his body obscured by a long, black cloak, and he wore a straw hat and a Hidden Grass hitae-ate.

"Hello little girl." The man's blocky face stretched into a grin. "I've been sent to kill you."

* * *

Naruko grimaced after witnessing their Grass nin attacker swallow his own scroll hole. "That's disgusting..."

During the time the ninja had taken to devour the scroll, Kuro had moved beside her two present teammates, dropping into her own defensive stance.

The grass nin once again licked his lips. "So now, how about we fight for our scrolls? With our lives..."

He widened his eyes and made eye contact with the other Genin, making their stances falter as they struggled to withstand the powerful killing intent he was exuding.

Naruko almost felt like throwing up. 'What the hell is this guy?.. This is worse than Natsune's on a bad day. I can barely stand...'

She glanced to Sasuke, who seemed to be in a similar state to hers and then to Kuro, who actually seemed to be coping better. Or, it would have looked that way were it not for the fact that every part of her person was shaking uncontrollably.

The grass nin smirked. "Easy prey."

He made a lightning fast movement with his hands and suddenly kunai were shooting towards the three Genin from every direction. Kuro and Sasuke reacted just in time to dodge the projectiles, with Sasuke managing to kick out the back of Naruko's knee, causing her to collapse as well, as she was still struggling against the killing intent. Sasuke then scooped her up and all three of them fled the area, to a higher vantage point in the trees, the grass nin inconspicuously following their tracks.

Once on a high enough branch, Sasuke lay Naruko down, who had now recovered and gave her teammates a nod of thanks.

"Thank yo-" Her gratitude was cut off by Sasuke placing a hand over her mouth, shutting her up.

"We need to keep quiet and get out of here." Sasuke told her in his quietest voice possible. "Before that guy finds us again."

The Uchiha noticed Naruko's eyes widen in shock, but she wasn't able to warn the boy about the impending danger until it was too late. A loud hiss filled Sasuke's ears, and he turned just in time to see a large snake being impaled to a tree by an ice spear through it's throat. He turned to Kuro, and saw the girl struggling to hold the writhing reptile in it's place, until, with a twist of the spear, she sliced through the neck of the overgrown animal, it's head plummeting towards the forest floor.

Below, the grass nin jumped to the side to avoid the falling snake head, raising an eyebrow at the shards of ice that fell with it. 'Interesting...'

Back up in the trees, Sasuke made to thank the small girl, but saw that she was shivering in fear. She looked up to the sole male of Team Seven and shook her head, Sasuke instantly knowing what she meant.

"Sa-suke." He turned at the sound of Naruko's solemn voice. "We can't run, can we... He'll catch us..."

The raven haired boy cringed, what Naruko said was a statement, not a question. He looked to the ground and clenched his hands into fists, letting out a shaky breath.

Both Naruko and Sasuke's attentions where brought to Kuro, who had suddenly stood up, a steely but strained look on her face. Slowly crawling up her right arm were several thin tendrils of ice, spreading across her chest.

"Fight?" Naruko leaned back against the tree trunk and made a cross sign with her fingers. "What else can we do?.."

Sasuke lowered his head in submission. What else could they do? Nothing. What other options where there? Non.

* * *

A demonic screech of pain rose from the large reptile's throat as white hot flames engulfed it's body, melting away it's scales and scorching it's body to a crisp. Near the beast's mid section, Natsune stood with one hand pressed against it's underbelly, the white flames also engulfing the arm that hand was attached to, but not effecting it. She looked to the quivering lump of black, her attacker, and relished of the fear the hunched man was exuding. Pulling her arm away from the blackened snake, she made her way to the man. Behind her, the flames dissipated and the ashen reptile crumbled to the ground.

The cloaked man took a step back and grunted. "What the hell are you? Why are you so powerful."

Natsune shrugged and chucked maliciously. "Perhaps I'm a demon?.."

She shot forward towards the man, only to be made to dodge large boulder that would have easily crushed her. Rolling to her feet, she was instantly forced to jump to a nearby tree, clinging onto the bark with her chakra.

"Still putting up a fight." Natsune's face morphed once again into the malicious grin that was becoming all to familiar. "Excellent..."

The man growled and dug his arms into the ground infront of him, and with large effort he ripped four square metres of earth from the ground, and tossed it towards Natsune, who easily dodged out of the way. He made to do the same action again, but froze when he felt a small hand get placed on the back of his head.

"You moves are sluggish and clumsy." Natsune stated, gripping the man's head tightly. "You're also dead."

Flames once again manifested around Natsune's arm, instantly spreading onto the grass nin, who began screaming in anguish as he was slowly burnt to a crisp. Natsune let go of the yelling man and jumped up onto a tree branch. She leapt from branch to branch in the direction her teammates were.

* * *

Back with the other Genin of Team Seven, each had taken a hidden position around their attacker, who hadn't moved, and, unknowing to them, knew exactly where they were.

Due to this, he merely smirked and jumped away when two large water bullets landed one after the other where he previously stood. What he didn't expect was spikes of ice rise up from the pools that had been created and attempt to impale him, and he hastily jumped away. Once he landed he threw two shuriken, which intecepted two of Sasuke's own that were on a direct course for him. While his arm was in mid throw, a water whip shot out of a nearby bush and wrapped around the appendage, the water then falling to reveal ninja wire. The grass nin's eyebrows raised when flames began to shoot across the wire. He moved to avoid it once again but found himself stuck, his feet frozen to the ground, rendering him unable to move.

The man yelled in pain as the flames engulfed him, and the three Genin cautiously left their spots, the two clones of Naruko's dispersing, as they unwillingly watched him get torched alive.

However, the yells dissipated along with the fire when the grass nin's body turned to mud, taking the Genin aback.

"What th-" Naruko's cry of disbelief was interrupted when the thick tail of a human adult sized snake clubbed her in the head, sending her flying into a nearby tree, knocking her unconcious. The snake then wrapped itself around both Naruko and the tree, securing her.

"Naruko!" Sasuke yelled, running to free the girl, but was stopped when a backhand collided with his cheek, courtesy of the grass nin that appeared beside him, sending him sprawling to the ground.

The grass nin looked at the downed boy for a split second before aiming his gaze at Kuro, who seemed to be once again shivering in fear at the sight of him taking out both of her teammates so easily.

"You." The man began walking towards Kuro. "You interest me. Your kekkei genkai is powerful."

He stopped when Sasuke rose and weakly moved between him and Kuro, and gave the Uchiha a bored glance.

"You haven't unlocked your bloodline yet. You're useless." He disappeared and reappeared infront of Sasuke, sending the boy flying with another powerful punch, then his attention shot back to Kuro. "You're my new target!"

Kuro had no time to react when the grass nin's neck stretched from it's socket and slithered through the air towards her, the man then biting down on her neck. As he retracted from her, overwhelming pain wracked her body, her legs giving way as she collapsed to the floor, her eyes wide and her pupils dilating as she lost all focus of anything around her. Eventually, the pain overcame her, her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell unconscious and fell to the ground by the grass nin's feet.

Looking down at the unconscious girl, the man smirked as the bite marks morphed to form the shape of three tomoe, but rose his head when a enraged yell cut through the air.

"You bastard!"

The man instinctively raised his hands in defence, effectively catching the punch thrown by Natsune, who had arrived to find Naruko unconscious, Sasuke sprawled out on the ground, and a random man sinking fangs into Kuro's neck. He winced as his hand began to burn where Natsune's fist was, and he pulled away, only to be forced to dodge a plume of white-hot fire that shot from the red-head's other hand. Retreating to the other side of the small clearing, the grass nin took in the difference is Natsune's appearance. Her pupils were narrow slits and her whisker marks had thickened.

'This girl. To be powerful enough to defeat Genkou.' He frowned.

"What the hell did you do to Kuro!?" Natsune shot forward, her fist raised, ready to deal a devastating blow to her teammates' attacker, but the man dodged to the side, though he was grazed by what felt like searing flame, but upon furthur inspection, he realised it was pure, tainted chakra.

'Kyuubi!? I need to escape. No doubt it'll be weaker in this form, but I mustn't take risks.' The grass nin thought, as he wove hand seals at the speed of an expert, dodging Natsune's wild attacks in the process.

Natsune leapt at the man once more, only for him to step to the side and raise his hand, slamming it into her throat, jolting her body and causing her to cough up blood.

"Juu Jikan Fuuin..."

A bright light shone from the grass nin's hand as Natsune let out a short cry of pain before falling silent. Once he was content with her silence, the nin threw her to the side, her body landing roughly on the ground. Her eyes had also rolled up into her head, her eyes still open though, showing only her sclera, and her mouth was slightly agape, blood trailing out of the corner.

Sasuke, who was the only one still conscious, had watch the entire interaction, and could only tremble with fear as he realised that this one monster had wiped out their whole team. Gulping back the fear, he squinted his eyes shut as he fought himself to his feet, gaining the attention of the grass nin. When he opened his eyes, the man growled in annoyance.

"Now you unlock it? I don't have enough chakra to mark you, nor do I have enough to kill you." The man began to walk out of the clearing. "I guess you're lucky, Uchiha brat."

The man had reached the edge of the clearing when he turned back and indicated to Kuro. "Oh, and tell your small friend that, should she survive the initial stage, she will come to seek me out."

"W-who are you?.."

Their attacker turned his head so he looked at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye, showing the raven haired boy snake-like eyes. "I, my dear boy, am Orochimaru. If you and your friends wish to see me again, you must pass this exam. Of course, you'll also have to defeat my sound Genin."

"Why the hell... would we want to see you again?.."

"I'm afraid it doesn't work quite that way."

With that Orochimaru disappeared, leaving a relieved but still panicked Sasuke, who collapsed onto his knees, exhausted, but looked around for a make-do shelter that they could recover in safely. He wouldn't rest until they his teammates were safe. Glancing around with his newly acquired Sharingan, Sasuke began to scout for a safe haven.

* * *

Oncs Sasuke had regained some of his strength, he hid the girls' unconcious bodies while he scouted the area for a more secure place. Eventually, he came across a tangle of large tree roots that provided overhead protection and only had one entrance and exit. He had marked a root and headed back to bring his teammates to the protection of the roots, which was where he was now, kneeling beside the girls and tending to them should they need it.

Naruko seemed to be unconcious, with only minor concussion and bruised ribs, caused by the snake that had constricted her, and promptly dispersed when Orochimaru left.

Natsune concerned Sasuke more, as she hadn't moved at all, or even showed any signs of life, except for the facts that her heart was still beating and she was breathing, albeit very weakly. He had also noticed a band of kanji that was wrapped around her neck, with a thin black line rising up to her right temple, circling the kanji for 'Juu'.

The one who seemed to need the most treatment was Kuro, who had recently broken into a hot sweat and was writhing in pain. Sasuke had managed to collect some water and keep the girl cool with a damp bit of cloth ripped from his sleeve. While taking care of her, Sasuke realised that every now and then the tomoe on her neck would glow a mixture of ice blue and cyan, followed by a worsening in Kuro's condition.

Replacing the wet cloth, Sasuke sat back and thought back to what Orochimaru had said to him before he disappeared. 'Oh, and tell your small friend that, should she survive the initial stage, she will come to seek me out.'

The Uchiha frowned. 'Why would Kuro go looking for that guy?..'

A groan from Naruko distracted Sasuke from his brief thoughts, and he shot to her side to help her sit up, the blonde wincing and clutching her midriff.

"Careful, that snake did some damage to your ribs." He advised her. "You shouldn't move too much."

"What happened after I was knocked out?.." Naruko inquired clutching her head at the slight headache she felt.

"Why don't you take a look?"

She did so, looking to her left where the other girls lay, noticing the different seals on both of them. "What happened to them?.."

Sasuke sighed. "To be honest, I'm not sure. Whatever seal Orochimaru placed on Kuro is causing her extreme pain. Orochimaru is the guy who attacked us." Sasuke told Naruko after she gave him a confused look. "As for Natsune, I'm clueless, but she hasn't moved an inch by her own will. I think that seal has something to do with it though."

"I guess I was lucky..." Naruko let out a mirthless laugh. "Wait, so you've been looking after us all this time? But it's dawn, you've been awake all night! Aren't you tired?"

"You three were my priority, you needed to be safe."

"Sasuke..."

"Up all night?.." A snort echoed around the clearing, catching the attention of the two conscious members of Team Seven, who looked beyond the roots to see the sound nin team that had attacked Kabuto before the first test.

"How convenient that you're still awake. We want to fight you." The bandaged sound nin told them.

'Sound Genin!' Sasuke's eyes widened. "Why did Orochimaru do these things to my teammates!?"

Both he and Naruko missed the surprised looks on all three of the sound nins' faces at the name of their master. The bandages Genin's visible eye frowned. "What do you mean..."

"Kuro and Natsune! They've got these weird seals on them!" Naruko said frantically.

The bandaged Genin grunted. "I wonder what that man is thinking..."

"I don't care." The spiky haired Genin smirked. "After hearing that, we can't let these guys go. I'll kill this blonde and Sasuke. Then we can get round to the dozers behind them."

Naruko and Sasuke dropped into defensive stances, but the bandaged Genin held his teammate back. "Wait Zaku."

"What? Why Dosu?"

Dosu trudged forward and knelt down before a neatly spread patch of grass, then swept it away. "You're not very good at making traps Uchiha."

"What? But Sasuke is-"

"Naruko. Shut up..." Sasuke whispered harshy, sending the girl a reassuring look, who shut her mouth and nodded subtly.

Dosu chuckled as he carefully nudged a tense strip of ninja wire that had been hidden by the dead grass. "This isn't even academy level."

He drew out a kunai and sliced through the wire, but wasn't expecting it to shoot away from him, and soon after he heard a clicking noise. Looking around for the source of the noise, it was only after a shout of warning from his female teammate that he saw numerous kunai flying towards him from the treetops, flung by a now loose vine that had been attached to the wire he had cut. Just in time, he leapt back to join his teammates, avoiding being punctured by the ninja tools.

"Decoy trap." Sasuke told the shocked sound Genin, grinning. "Watch your step."

"As I was saying, Sasuke is pretty good with traps!" Naruko's expression matched Sasuke's

Dosu grunted in frustration. "Zaku..."

"Those traps'll be gone in no time!" Zaku raised his arms, revealing two holes in both of his palms of his hands. "Zankuuha!"

Powerful blasts of air erupted from Zaku's palms, blasting away all the placed grass and ripping through any ninja wire, setting of all of the traps prematurely, clearing the path towards Sasuke and Naruko, the two tired Genin grimacing in dismay.

"Kill them."

At Dosu's order, the sound Genin leapt from their perch on a felled tree in the direction of Naruko and Sasuke, only for a shadow to be cast over them. When they looked up, their eyes widened in surprise when they saw a thick trunk of a tree falling towards them. Reacting just in time, Dosu used the gauntlet on his arm to somehow break through the tree, sending fragments of the trunk in all directions. However, they weren't expecting the barrage of shuriken thrown towards them by Sasuke and Naruko, only just managing to deflect them with kunai.

The sound Genin glared at Sasuke when they landed not far from where they had started.

"Not all of my traps were on the ground." Sasuke informed the attackers with fake bravado. 'Although that was my last one...'

'The Uchiha's as good as Lord Orochimaru said...' Dosu thought warily. 'We need to hit them hard and fast...'

"Be careful of your next attack." Sasuke warned them, trying to build a bluff. "I've seen both your's and you spiky haired friend's attacks."

"Alright Sasuke!" Naruko exclaimed, sending a confident look the boy's way.

"Don't get overconfident brats!" Zaku growled, raising his palms once again, sending two more powerful blasts of air towards the concious leaf Genin.

Sasuke hurriedly activated his sharingan, wincing at the use of his already depleted chakra, and picked up Naruko, moving them both out of the way of the air blasts and landing on a tree branch nearby. Looking towards Zaku, his blood froze when he saw the savage grin that stretched across his features as the sound Genin aimed his palms towards the two unconcious members of Team Seven.

"I wonder. Can you get to them in time, Uchiha?"

"Shit!" Sasuke quickly but carefully placed Naruko on the branch and leapt off of the branch, landing infront of Natsune and Kuro just before Zaku fired his attack, the blasts of air now on a direct course for Sasuke.

Sasuke rapidly made a set of hand seals, took a deep breath, and quickly exhaled a large fireball that engulfed the blast of air. But this only lasted for a second until the air broke through, now flaming, colliding with the raven haired boy and sending him flying back into one of the large roots that shielded his teammates, making him cough up some blood before falling to the ground.

Zaku cackled as he directed his palms at the downed Uchiha. "You're dead! Zankuuha!"

"Sasuke!" Naruko stood from her seat on the branch and wove some hand seals, and took a deep breath just as Sasuke had, only when she exhaled, a concentrated bullet of air shot from her mouth, colliding with the Zankuuha Zaku had just shot, knocking it off course, protecting Sasuke.

The blonde sighed in relief, which was short lived when the sound kunoichi appeared behind her and backhanded her across her face, throwing her off the branch. She cried out in anguish when she collided with the ground, the extreme pain rising from her chest telling her that at least one of her already damaged ribs were now broken. Soon the pain became to great and she blacked out.

"Naruk-aahhg!" Sasuke's yell was cut short when Dosu's boot slammed against his chest, causing him to groan in pain.

"You made this more trouble than it was worth." Dosu drew a kunai. "Almo-."

Before Dosu could continue, kunai flew towards him from nearby shrubs, forcing him to jump off Sasuke and land nearby, only to find himself robbed of his ability to move.

"What the!?"

"Kagemane no jutsu, successful." A lazy voice drawled from the undergrowth.

All eyes turned in the direction of the voice to see Shikamaru slowly walking out of the bushes, his hands in a rat seal.

"More of them!?" Zaku yelled in frustration.

"You alright there Sasuke?" Shikamaru asked his fellow rookie, who gave him a weak nod.

"Why can't I move?" Dosu inquired, his eyes narrowing.

"My kagemane no jutsu." Shikamaru told his captive. "I won't go into detail but it basically allows me to control your movements. Like so."

Shikamaru began an odd dance, wiggling his arms in the air and doing strange movements with his feet. Sasuke couldn't help but crack a small smile when Dosu made the exact same movements, a bemused look covering his features as his teammates looked on in confusion.

"Anyway, time to get to business." Shikamaru stood still and looked to the bush he had emerged from. "Chouji, you're up."

"Alright! Nikudan Sensha!" An excitable voice erupted from the bush, soon followed by a large ball that headed for Dosu.

'Damn it! Dosu can't dodge!' Zaku thought, hastily raising his hands and firing another Zankuuha to gradually deflect the ball away from Dosu, who had been released by Shikamaru at the last second, to avoid damage to his own person.

While in the air, the ball exploded into a puff of smoke, which dissipated to reveal a dazed Chouji, who slowly fell to the ground, caught by a now present Ino before he impacted the ground.

"Chouji... Get off..." Groaned Ino, the recently 'caught' Chouji panned out on Ino's back, the girl face down in the dirt.

"Dizzy... So dizzy..." Chouji murmured before being pushed off Ino by Shikamaru, rolling to the side.

The sound Genin watched in disbelief, mainly Dosu, not able to comprehend how the recent arrivals had nearly beaten even one of their team.

"Urgh..." Ino groaned, then turned to Sasuke. "You alright?"

"Sort of..." Sasuke replied, hefting himself to his knees, wincing.

"I'm getting sick of all these rats that keep crawling out!" Zaku growled in anger, once again lifting his arms, aiming at all four of the leaf Genin. "Zankuuha!"

With no means of protecting themselves, the leaf Genin braced themselves for the incoming blasts of air, only for them to be blocked by a shield of ice that appeared out of nowhere, made up of multiple thick shards of ice.

"What now!?"

* * *

'Where am I?..'

Kuro looked around the blank whiteness she stood in, clueless as to where she was. Facing ahead again, she noticed a small figure that wasn't there previously, curled up on the ground, it's knees pushed up to it's chest.

'A child?'

'Why did mother have to die?'

The thought that eminated from the child made Kuro take a step back, her eyes wide with horror, recognising the tone the thought held. 'M-me!?'

True enough, a younger Kuro was sat before her, with flawlessly pale skin, a dead look in her eyes, wearing an ice blue yukata.

'You had no strength...'

'W-what?..'

'Mother was killed... Burned to death.'

Kuro fell to her knees. 'No! Stop!'

The younger Kuro looked up, making eye contact with Kuro, who realed back in disgust as the girl's skin on the right side of her body blackened and began to peel off.

'All you did was watch... powerless...'

Kuro was unable to reply, but retreated from her smaller self when their right eye seemed to peel away, revealing a slitted, green snake eye.

The younger Kuro grinned evilly. 'But what if you had the power?..'

* * *

A sinister aura rose around the collected ninja, directing their attention to the gathered roots where Kuro and Natsune lay, or rather, Natsune lay, the other girl now hunched over on her knees, dirty light blue chakra rising from her body.

Dosu reeled back. "This chakra! He used the curse seal!?"

Kuro rose to her feet, still partially hunched over, the gathered shinobi spotting spike-like symbols spreading around her body.

"Kuro?.." Sasuke called her name warily.

Kuro's head rose, and everyone flinched at the look on her face. The sickening grin she wore was once expected of Natsune, as one thought ran through her mind.

'Power...'

* * *

A~nd done! Ooo cliffhanger :P

A later update, as I said future updates would be. It would have been earlier, but I had damn writer's block at the beginning of the sound/Sasuke meeting. The next one should be faster, as I have things already planned out, but no promises! And also, apologies if this chapter is smaller than others, even with more time between the updates. Two reasons, the first being the writer's block, the second being me splitting stuff into parts for similarly length chapter to come (hopefully).

As for the chapter, if there are any mistakes, I can't be arsed fixing them now, as it is around 2 in the morning in good ol' blighty right now, and I'm exhausted.

So, check out Lilise's fic, as a reminder, and other then that, this is a red penguin saying goodbye!


	7. Chapter 7

He-llo guys! A red penguin here with the next update! And an incredibly LATE update... My apologies for that. There was school, GCSE exams, maths to be precise... bleagh... And then Halo 4 came out and took most of my free time, as it is the best game to ever be produced. The rest was taken by helping out theSBCast on youtube... aahh shameless plug :D

Anyway~...

To remedy the lateness, I tried to make this chapter longer, though I'm no sure it's enough. :/

Anyway, here's the chapter. :)

* * *

Silence. It shrouded the clearing while everyone stared at Kuro with a mix of fear, shock and confusion. The small girl's demented grin had disappeared as she stared blankly at the sound trio, who all flinched under her gaze.

'That girl has the curse seal all over her body!' Dosu thought worriedly.

'What are those things on her body!?' Sasuke wondered, staring at the spike-like symbols that etched themselves onto her skin. "Kuro! Those marks!"

The white haired girl ceased her gaze towards the sound nin and looked over the marks on her skin, raising a hand in front of her face. After a few seconds of analysing them, her lips pursed into a small smirk as she then made eye contact with Sasuke, who flinched.

"K-Kuro..."

"I'm guessing she's not usually like this?" Shikamaru asked Sasuke warily.

"Not at all..."

Dosu eyed the girl carefully and with slight fear as observed the odd markings that were spread across her body. 'So that girl was branded with the curse seal. And she got up from it...'

He was brought from his thoughts when Kuro gave him and his teammates accusing glares, causing him and the female to take a step back, but Zaku just wore an arrogant grin.

"Dosu! Why are you scared of this midget!?" Zaku questioned confidently, pressing the palms of his hands together, then pointed them both at Kuro.

"No! Zaku, don't!.."

Dosu was cut off when Zaku fired a 'Kyūkyoku Zankuuha' at Kuro, which blasted all of the area in front of Zaku with powerful blasts of wind, throwing Sasuke and Team Ten to the ground and ripping the bark of nearby trees. Zaku ended his jutsu and waited for the collected dust to settle, which revealed a wide groove that was cut into the ground, making the sound nin smirk with satisfacation. But that arrogance was wiped from his face when more of the dust settled, showing another shield of ice, similar to the one used earlier, but on a larger scale, protecting Kuro, who hadn't moved an inch, from the entirety of the blast.

"What!? How the hell are you not dead!?" Zaku yelled at Kuro, who did nothing except press her right palm against the surface of the ice shield.

At her touch the shield shattered into thousands of shards of ice. She then aimed the same hand at Zaku, fingers spread. With that action, each of the seperate shards morphed into shapes similar to arrowheads and shot towards their target, each individual shard slicing at Zaku's skin, throwing him to the floor with the overall force of the attack, a plentiful amount of thin gashes littering any exposed skin and his clothes.

Zaku shouted out in pain, not noticing Kuro appear before him, ice kunai bared in both hands. He had no time to react as Kuro drove a kunai into the area just above his left collarbone, causing him to cry out in pain.

Sasuke watch all of these events occur with a look of disbelief on his face. 'This isn't like Kuro at all! What's gotten into her?'

A soft groan distracted Sasuke from his thoughts, instead reverting his attention to a now conscious Naruko, who tried to prop herself up on her elbows, only to wince in pain and tenderly grip her chest. He rapidly made his way over to her, helping her sit up and asking her how she felt.

"My ribs hurt like hell." Naruko groaned again, when the sound of yelling drew her attention, as she looked over to were Kuro and Zaku were. "Ah, so Kuro's ok!"

Sasuke frowned. "I'm not so sure. She acting differently. And she has these weird markings on her skin."

"What do you mean?"

No explanation was needed, since right after the question was asked Naruko witnessed Kuro drive her second kunai just above Zaku's right collarbone, also noticing the satisfied smile Kuro wore while she did the action. "What?.. Kuro..."

Naruko tried to move to stand up, but had to be held in place by Sasuke after she flinched with pain, gripping her chest.

"You shouldn't be moving..."

"But Kuro..."

Zaku yelled in pain at the same feeling he experienced in his left shoulder appeared in his right. Kuro stood above him, her hands now free, the kunai wedged behind Zaku's collarbones. A single tendril of ice trialed down her right arm, forming a spear longer than her own body when it reached her hand. She wore a sadistic grin as she reered the spear back, going for a finishing blow to Zaku's head, killing intent evident on her features. She lunged.

* * *

'You nearly have it. All the power you need!'

The statement from the deformed figure of Kuro's younger self was partially ignored by Kuro, who appeared to be forcing back the spiked pattern that was spreading across her body, reaching to her wrists.

'Stop. This!'

'Why should I? It'll give all the power you need to slaughter that insect of a human that gave you those horrible scars!'

'I don't want this!' Kuro glared at her younger self.

'Oh?' The younger Kuro raised an eyebrow, her slitted eyes widening. 'But it seems your resistance is weakening. You want this power.'

'I-I don't want this!..' Kuro shivered as a sudden chill overcame wherever the marks were covering. 'Wha-? So cold...'

'If this power is not controlled, you will perish soon, just like the hundreds before you...'

Kuro collapsed to her knees, arms crossed over her waist, trying to keep warm, as the curse marks made their way to her left eye. 'So cold.'

Her head drooped, only to perk up again at the feeling of a strange warmth wrapping around her, fighting back both the cold and the curse seal.

The younger Kuro looked on inquisitively. 'How interesting. The seal is receding.'

* * *

Zaku blinked in surprise when the spear ceased movement an inch away from his nose, and his eyes followed the length of the spear to find that Kuro's arm had been held back by Naruko, who had wrapped an arm around Kuro's shoulder, managing to restrict that arm's movement. Her free left arm wrapped gently around Kuro's neck, pulling the smaller girl into the nape of her neck.

"Kuro..." Naruko whispered softly. "... This isn't like you. Stop."

"Zaku!" The female of the sound three jumped forward to get her wailing teammate out of the danger the white haired girl had been posing.

Showing slight shock, Kuro looked up to make eye contact with Naruko, noticing tears slowly running down the blonde's cheeks. She seemed to flinch, then her eyes rolled back and slowly shut as she fell back into Naruko. The marks covering her skin began to recede back to the mark on her neck. Kuro stirred in Naruko's hold, her eyes half-lidded, fighting unconciousness.

Sasuke and Team Ten watched warily, keeping an eye on both Kuro and the sound trio.

"You're strong." The leaf Genins' attentions were brought to Dosu, who stood a safe distance away from Kuro and Naruko, and was holding their scroll. "It seems we will be unable to beat any of you at this time."

He held the scroll out then placed it on the ground below him. "This may seem convenient to you, but Rest assured that the next time we meet, we will not run nor hide."

Dosu nodded to his female teammate, who followed him out of the clearing supporting Zaku. Naruko tracked them as they left, but was distracted by a quiet growl sent after the sound ninja by Kuro. Looking at the girl beside her, she saw eyes filled with hate and anger, flinching at the intensity behind them.

"Naruko! Kuro!"

Sasuke ran towards his teammates, while Ino went to check up on Natsune to see if she had been caught by any debris from Zaku's attacks. Just as he reached them, Kuro swiftly stood and began to walk off, but was halted by Naruko gripping her wrist. Ignoring the contact, she ripped herself from Naruko's grip and continued to walk away.

"Kuro!" Naruko made to grab for her again, but stopped when Kuro turned her head and made eye contact, her eyes no longer full of the harshness they held, now only soft emptiness.

Naruko and Sasuke watched Kuro leap to a high branch on a nearby tree, hiding herself from view.

The Uchiha sighed and turned his attention to Ino and their last teammate. "Ino, how is she?"

"She seems fine, no injuries. There is this weird seal, but I'm guessing you knew that." Ino told him, looking up from her inspection.

"Yeah, we did. Thanks for checking up on her, and for your help. We'd probably be dead."

Ino smiled grimly at the thought. "No problem at all. Would you like us to stay a while or should we leave?"

"You can head off. You need to get your scoll to pass this exam. I want to see you guys in the third test." Sasuke waved Ino off casually, a grateful smile on his face, and with that and a small exchange of goodbyes, Team Ten were gone.

"So... Now what?.." Naruko inquired tiredly.

"Once Kuro's better, get to the tower without being killed. I'll carry Natsune if she's still out by then."

"And until then?.."

"Rest. You need it."

"But you've been up all night looking after us! You need rest more than me!"

Sasuke grunted. Naruko was right, he was practically asleep on his feet at this point. The sleepless night and the conflict wiped him of any energy he had. He didn't have long to dwell on those facts when a scrunched up ball of paper hit him on his head.

"Gah! What the-!?" He picked the ball from the floor and unravelled it, Naruko peaking over his shoulder.

_'I'll keep watch. Get some rest'_

"Kuro you sure?" Sasuke asked, and was answered by a hand sticking out from behind the tree giving him and Naruko a thumbs up. "Alright then. 'Night."

The worn out Uchiha moved to lie beside the still unconcious Natsune. "See you in the morning Naruko."

"Yeah, g'night..." Naruko replied, only slightly listening to him, more focused in the direction of Kuro, confused by all that just happened.

Eventually, Naruko shook her head clear of any troubling thoughts and lay on the other side of Natsune.

From her perch on the tree branch, Kuro stared off into the darkness of the forest. She brought one leg up to her chest and rested her forehead on her knee, trying her best to rid herself of all the recent happenings; Orochimaru, that disfigured form of her younger self, herself. At that thought, she unconsciously raised a hand to tenderly rub the curse mark. Her thoughts then moved to her time trapped in her mindscape, the cold sensation that surrounded her the more the curse mark wrapped around body. Then she returned to the outside world, held by Naruko, staring into the eyes of a pained shinobi, blood seeping from his wounds that she inflicted.

What was happening to her?

She shook her head, this time succeeding in blocking out those unwanted thoughts and memories, deciding to practise her jutsu. May as well do something to waste time until the next day.

Crossing her legs, Kuro took on a meditating pose and placed her hands in a bird seal.

* * *

"FOR GOD'S SAKE MY HEAD!"

Kuro's left eye twitched in annoyance as her concentration broke, three football sized ice crystals above her head crumbling away and falling onto her head. She tilted her head around the tree trunk to where her teammates had been sleeping, to see Natsune, now conscious, rolling on the floor, gripping her head, but seemingly not in pain. On her knees beside her was Naruko, half glad Natsune was okay, half bewildered by her sudden outburst. Not far from the two was Sasuke, paned out on the floor after being hit in the head by a flailing foot of Natsune's, appearing to be moaning and swearing in pain.

Now becoming annoyed of her partner's yells, Naruko gripped Natsune by the shoulders and shook her. "What's up!?"

"My head! It's itchy as hell!" Natsune whined, her fingers ravaging her scalp like there was no tomorrow.

"That's it!?" Naruko grunted in annoyance. "I was worried!"

Her attention was brought away from the dramatic red-head to Kuro, who had jumped down from her perch and approached her team. "Kuro!"

By this time Sasuke had risen from the ground and joined Naruko and Natsune.

"Are you feeling any better Kuro."

Kuro gave Naruko a nod, but proceeded to walk towards Natsune, hitting her over the head.

"Ow! What the hell!?"

_'I was concentrating'_

"Well so~rry Miss Grumpy..." Natsune pouted, but stopped when Kuro glared at her. "Oh... So how're you doing anyway?"

_'It feels fine at the moment'_

"Oh yeah!" Naruko noticed that the seals that had been on Natsune's neck and head had disappeared. "Those seals went when you woke up Natsune."

"I'm guessing they disappeared because I woke up. I may be wrong but my guess is that the jutsu Orochimaru used on me locked away my mind for a set time. A powerful but chakra expensive move." Natsune briefly explained, quickly moving on to a more important topic. "So how far into this exam are we?"

"Very late into the second day and probably pretty late into the evening." Sasuke informed her. "We still have both scrolls, by some miracle, so we should really get heading for the tower in the middle. In all honesty, we need rest, but thanks to you and your yelling, we're now wide awake, with assumably multiple teams heading in the direction..."

Natsune muttered an apology.

"On the good side, considering the small possibility that other teams nearby are asleep, now would be a good time to make a move, hopefully gain some ground. If we keep to the trees we could actually reach the tower by morning."

"Seriously?.. We need more sleep..." Naruko moaned, with Kuro giving a silent yawn in reply.

"Well it's either we sleep in a dangerous forest, where things have already gone shit for us already, or we sleep in comfy beds in a tower, in no danger at all." Sasuke told them, giving them the blunt truth. "I know what choice I'd make but if you fancy a dirt nap, go ahead."

A silence followed, but it was clear all three girls had made the same decision.

"So when do we set off?" Naruko asked, seeming a lot more eager than she had been only seconds ago.

"Straight away."

* * *

For the time they had been travelling towards the tower, Team Seven hadn't run into any trouble, beside being ambushed by a large centipede, but that was easily taken care of. Aside from that, it seemed they were home free, and with the sun starting to rise it made things that much easier, as they had better vision. However, there was one minor problem...

"Urgh, I never knew Kuro could be this heavy..." Sasuke grunted as he leapt from another branch, making sure that Kuro's sleeping person didn't fall of his back.

Naruko stifled a laugh while Natsune scoffed.

"Don't let her hear you say that. You're treading dangerous ground with that subject." Naruko warned Sasuke jokingly, looking at the Uchiha to her left.

"You're such a weakling, I've carried Kuro before, she's not that heavy." Natsune told Sasuke in a mock critique voice.

Sasuke grumbled childishly and avoided eye contact with his two awake teammates, but perked up when he spotted their destination in the distance. "Hey, there's the tower!"

The three headed in the direction of the tower in a comfortable silence, senses heightened, listening out for any last minute threats. There were non, and they reached the tower around five minutes later. They walked into one of the few chambers that were on the ground floor. On the far wall was a large parchment with the words 'With...Heaven'.

"Oh yey. A puzzle. Gee if I knew this is what we get I'd have ran straight here..." Natsune remarked sarcasticly. "Got to love a good puzzle..."

"Natsune shut up..." Sasuke said bluntly, sending her an irritated stare.

"What does 'With Heaven' mean?" Naruko questioned, looking up at the parchment.

"It looks like some of the words are missing." Sasuke observed.

"Can't we just open the scrolls?" Natsune's question made Naruko and Sasuke pause.

"It would definitely save time..." Naruko admitted.

"But we don't know what could hap- Are you even listening!?" Sasuke resisted the urge to facepalm when Naruko caught a scroll tossed over by Natsune.

"Fingers crossed." The red-head whispered, before tearing the seal and unravelling the scroll, Naruko following her lead.

They jumped back when the scrolls began to hiss and smoke, then exploded into a plume of white smoke. Each member dropped into a defensive stance, Sasuke trying his best with his passenger, who was beginning to stir. The smoke dissipated to reveal the same person who was in charge of the second exam.

"Ahh so your bratty asses made it huh?" Anko asked rhetorically, grinning ferociously at Team Seven. "Well congrats! You've passed the second exam!"

Looks of relief spread across each member of Team Seven's faces.

"That's all I had to say. To be honest it was a complete waste of time for me being here. Then again I didn't organise this bit." Anko admitted, shrugging and indicating at a door in the far corner of the room. "Head through there, you'll get food, rest and any kind of check-ups you need."

"Alright, thanks." Sasuke gave Anko a respectful nod before heading for the door, Naruko and Natsune following.

Anko raised an eyebrow in confusion as Sasuke passed, seeing Kuro on his back. "What's up with her?"

"Oh Kuro? She's just sleepy." Sasuke told her.

"Oh really?" Anko grinned and patted Kuro hard on the head, effectively waking her up. "Up and at 'em midget. Wakey wa-."

The snake jounin froze mid-sentence when Kuro clambered off Sasuke, unconscious revealing her curse mark. She then placed a hand on Kuro's shoulder.

"How did you get that?.."

"We were attacked by a guy called Orochimaru. He bit her and gave her that mark." Naruko explained, noticing Kuro fumbling around for her pad.

'So he really is here...' Anko frowned with worry and tugged at Kuro's arm. "You're coming with me."

"Wait what are you going to do!?" Naruko asked hastily.

"Calm down. We're just going to sort that mark out. We've had this before." Anko told Kuro teammates, revealing her own curse mark at the nape of her neck. "Just go through there and get some rest, you friend'll be with you by midday."

Team Seven each gave a reluctant nod and left the room, which was then emptied when Anko disappeared, Kuro in tow.

The team were shown to a room which held three beds, one in the main room and two in a joint room, and a bathroom, with the escort apologising for the lack of a fourth bed.

"Guess their not used to a four man team." Sasuke summised

"Ahh it's fine, me and Naruko'll sleep together." Natsune stated nonchalantly.

Naruko didn't seem as enthusiastic. "We will?.."

"Yeah sure, we do it at home."

"Fine, sure... I just want sleep."

"Being the only boy I'll sleep in this room." Sasuke told them, indicating to the room they were in.

"Such a gentleman... See you later." Naruko spun on her heels and walked through to the other room.

"Hey grumpypants, wait up!" Natsune said teasingly, following her partner, leaving Sasuke on his lonesome.

"Have a nice sleep? Oh thanks, I will..." Sasuke quipped, turning to his own bed.

* * *

"Oi, Kakashi!" Anko appeared in a hall of the tower beside the masked jounin, who was leaning over against a wall casually.

"Oh Anko, how's the exam going." Kakashi inquired after a friendly nod.

Anko grunted. "Debatable... I'm sure you've heard the rumours of the snake?"

"Indeed." Kakashi sighed. "So they're true?"

"Oh they're true. And we have proof. He gave a student of yours his famous lovebite." Anko stated grimly.

Kakashi tensed. "Sasuke?"

"Actually it wasn't the Uchiha brat. That short girl, the quiet one."

Kakashi's visible eye widened in surprise. "Is she alright?"

"She's stable. Getting it sealed off right as we speak. I wouldn't advise overseeing the process though."

Kakashi frowned. "Why's that."

"Well she'll be topless, and I doubt a man substansially older than her would be allowed to see her topless, sensei or not." Anko told him, a cheeky grin on her face.

At that, Kakashi's frown broke and he shrugged in understanding.

Anko gave him a reassuring punch to his left arm, causing Kakashi to cringe in pain at the underestimation of power used in her show of comfort.

* * *

Two days had past since Team Seven had reached the tower. As promised Kuro had arrived at their room by the first night, with a complex seal circled around the curse mark. After the rest each of Team Seven deserved, they trained like any other day, but made sure to maintain their energy, as rumours of a possible prelim round spreading due to the unusually large number of teams passing the second test.

The rumours turned out to be true, and here they where now, stood alongside the other ninja teams in what appeared to be an arena, facing the Hokage and various Jounin and Chuunin. At the minute the Hokage was addressing the teams and explaining why they were here and the reason for the exams in the first place, so Naruko, stood third in their team, behind Natsune and before Kuro, took the time to ignore the Third and take in her surrondings.

On either side of the arena were two small viewing areas with steps leading down to the arena at the sides. Behind the Hokage and other ninjas was a large statue of some hands forming the 'Ram' hand seal, with two small pools of water in the corners of the room beside the statue. Looking at the teams around her, Naruko noticed that Ino's team had made it through, though looking tired and roughed up, probably only barely making it. She skipped over Kiba's team, as she had met them beforehand, finding put that they were the culprits behind the horrific scream at the beginning of the second exam. The sand team, apparently the first to arrive, while also smashing the previous record for the exam, and the other four man team from their village were there as well. Lastly, Kabuto's team, plus the Sound Genin, who had somehow gain two scrolls, where the last of the teams.

By now the Hokage had finished, with a Jounin named Hayate taking his place, with the man appearing to have a chronic cough that made him pause every so often during his speech. Under his eyes where dark bags, making him look seriously ill, considering his pale complexion.

"As you may know, you're all here for a preliminary round before the third exam, just to reduce the numbers. The fights in the actual exam could take a while, and we're short on time. If anyone feels ill or unable to participate, speak up now."

Silence reigned for a while until Kabuto raised his hand, and, at Hayate's gesture, walked out, followed by both surprised and suspicious eyes.

"Anyone else wish to quit?" Hayate glanced around. "No? Um... alright then, let's begin the preliminaries. They will be one on one rounds, with you fighting like it was a real life situation. We have twenty-two remaining entrants, so there will be exactly eleven matches. Winners will advance to the third exam. There're no rules. The match ends when a fighter is rendered unable to fight or is dead, though I'd advise you to avoid death, so forfeit if that moment occurs. I will also jump in to avoid any unnecessary deaths."

Hayate indicated to a screen on the wall behind him. "This board will determine who battles who. While it may be sudden, let's choose the first fighters."

At that, the screen came to life and began to cycle through the names of the Genin present. Everyone's eyes were glued to the screen, most of them secretly hoping not to be the first up.

Sasuke Uchiha vs. Sakura Haruno

"Hell yeah!" Sakura raised her fists and tightened her gloves.

Sasuke had a less enthusiastic reaction. "Why do I have to go first?.."

"Ah you'll be fi~ne!" Natsune gave him a hard, reassuring pat on the back, while Naruko wished him good luck and Kuro gave him a nod of reassurance.

"Can those not picked make their way to the upper levels at the sides." Hayate instructed.

Everyone did so, while Sasuke and Sakura moved to the middle of the arena next to Hayate.

"Are you two ready?" The Jounin asked the first fighters, and, with a nod from both of them, he jumped back whilst yelling, "Begin!".

Dropping into a defensive stance, Sasuke barely had time to react when Sakura shot forward, fist reared back, obviously intending to end it quickly. He rolled out of the way and instantly stood back up, but was thrown off balance by the mini earthquake created when Sakura's fist impacted the ground where he once stood, effectively destroying the floor there.

Sasuke gawked at the ridiculous amounts of power that was behind that punch, but had no time to dwell when Sakura was in front of him again, causing him to leap out of the way. While in mid-air, Sasuke quickly wove a set of seals and breathed in deeply.

"Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Sasuke exhaled, firing multiple small fireballs towards Sakura, who was still on the ground, but easily dodged them.

As he landed he was instantly greeted with a fist courtesy of Sakura, which he managed to block, the forced still sending him flying back, landing on the floor.

In the stands, Naruko was also amazed by the power behind the pink haired girl's attacks.

"That girl's so strong!" Naruko exclaimed. "Sasuke can't do anything against her except dodge!"

Natsune shrugged. "I'm sure he'll manage somehow."

'How the hell can I do this!?' Sasuke thought franticly as he shoved his hand into his weapons pouch, fumbling around for something useful, then paused when his hand brushed over something. '...Worth a shot.'

Sakura eyed Sasuke suspiciously, watching him fumble around. Noticing the look of enlightenment on his face, she rushed forward, not risking any possible turn arounds, forcing Sasuke to dodge again.

For the next few minutes the cycle of Sakura attacking and Sasuke dodging continued, Sasuke using his sharingan to read Sakura's movements just enough to keep out of the way of her attacks. Eventually Sakura finally managed to land another hit, knocking the Uchiha, down groaning. Not letting up, Sakura ran in for the finishing blow, with Sasuke prone on the floor, or as it seemed anyway. As Sakura swung her fist, Sasuke flicked his left wrist only slightly, tightening the undetectable ninja wire he had wrapped around Sakura's body while he had been dodging, sending the pinkette off course, her fist impacting the floor to Sasuke's right.

Growling in frustration, Sakura could do nothing, her fist wedged in place in the stone floor and her body locked in place by the wire. Sasuke warily rose to his feet, whipped out a kunai and placed it against Sakura's neck.

"Winner, Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Alright Sasuke!" Naruko jumped with glee, while Natsune smirked, and Kuro stared on blankly, although obviously satisfied with her teammate's result.

"It appears your students are better than I anticipated Kakashi." Gai, a bowl haired, spandex wearing man, complimented his rival. "But don't get too cocky yet! That is just one of many!"

"Hmm? You say something Gai?" Kakashi stared across at the eccentric jounin from his place behind his team.

"Urgh! Damn you Kakashi! You and your hip ways!" Gai cringed and turned away from Kakashi, who watched in confusion.

Sasuke grinned with relief, breaking Sakura of her bonds and helping her to her feet. "Good match. You're immensely strong."

"So I've been told." Sakura winked. "Not too bad yourself ducky."

Sasuke blanked at the nickname, making Sakura giggle. "Not like the name? Well get used to it cutey."

She punched Sasuke in the arm, causing him to let out a cry of pain.

The two moved back to their teams, and the next two opponents were chosen soon after.

Yoroi Akado Vs. Shino Aburame.

"This will be a quick match boy." Yoroi boasted, reaching the centre of the arena, standing opposite to Shino.

"I agree." Shino nodded. "Someone who has failed this exam multiple times. You must be weak."

Yoroi glowered at Shino. "Cocky brat!"

"Begin!"

The older Genin started off with a simple punch, which Shino blocked easily. Yoroi then moved to grab Shino's blocking arm.

"Ha! Got you already!"

Shino raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?.."

His eyebrows rose at the sensation of his chakra steadily being drained from him, and he quickly broke free and jumped a safe distance away from Yoroi, who ran at Shino straight away, but collapsed to the floor partway.

"What the-? My chakra?.." Yoroi groaned from his place on the ground.

"My bugs." Shino stated bluntly. "We had similar ideas. Use methods to drain the other's chakra. Unfortunately for you my kikaichu are undetectable until the vital moment."

"Winner! Shino Aburame!"

"Huh, quick match." Natsune muttered, disappointed by the lack of fighting.

Naruko shivered. "Shino sort of creeps me out. And those bugs..." She shivered again.

"Thank god I wasn't against him..." Sasuke sighed with relief.

Natsune Kurama Vs Tenten

"Well, hello!" Natsune cracked her knuckles, looking to her right and sending a vicious look towards Tenten, who flinched.

Natsune jumped down from her place and landed in the middle of the arena, bouncing on her toes while she waited for Tenten to make her way down. When she was facing Natsune, the red-head gave her a sly wink, and Hayate began the match.

Not wasting time, Tenten jumped back and threw several shuriken and kunai at Natsune, who easily rolled out of the way, but was met by another wall of shuriken, too close for her to dodge.

"Damn..." Natsune frowned and rapidly wove some hand seals, slamming her hands to the ground afterwards. "Setchi teikō no jutsu!"

Just like the time she used the same jutsu on the bridge in wave country, thin pillars of stone rose around Natsune to protect her, effectively knocking each kunai of course.

Intent on keeping up the onslaught, Tenten snatched a scroll from her weapons pouch and unravelled it, summoning hundreds of kunai and firing them all at Natsune, who's jutsu kept them all at bay.

Tenten growled in frustration, seeing non of her weapons even go near her opponent, who just gave her a cocky smirk.

Up in the viewing area, Rock Lee and Sakura were enthusiastically cheering their teammate on.

"Come on Tenten! I am positive you can overcome her defenses!" Lee yelled excitedly, fist pumping the air.

"Hell yeah! You can easily beat this red-head brat!" Sakura exclaimed just as loud, slamming her fist into the railing, denting the metal.

Neji scoffed. "I'm not sure you two realise."

"Eh?.." Both Sakura and Lee looked at Neji.

"The girl is smirking. She's merely having fun at this point." Neji told his teammates, indicating to Natsune, who was still smirking.

Ceasing her most recent onslaught on Natsune, Tenten tried her best to catch her breath, chakra exhaustion from the ridiculous amounts of summoned weapons beginning to affect her. Meeting Natsune's eye once again, she glared when the red-head raised her left eyebrow as if to ask 'Is that it?'.

'Damn it!' Tenten roared in her head. 'I can't get past that jutsu of hers. And she doesn't even seem tired from using it! Non of my attacks are hitting her. From the front at lea- the front! She can see the weapons, so she can defend against them! All I need to do is to attack from a different angle. Worth a try!'

She reached into her weapons pouch once again and grabbed a single shuriken and a scroll. Seeing Tenten do this, Natsune prepared for another bout of weapons.

Tenten threw just the shuriken at first, the ninja star flying directly towards Natsune, but knocked of course like every other weapon by a pillar of stone. However, when Tenten flexed her wrist, the deflected shuriken changed course, heading for Natsune from her left side.

Natsune's eyes widened in surprise, rolling to the side to avoid injury. Crouching from her roll, but still off balance, she saw Tenten summon a spear from the scroll and throw it in her direction. Unable to do anythig due to being off balance, Natsune could do nothing but watch as the spear flew towards her, impaling her through her right eye and wedging into the ground behind her.

Silence filled the room, everyone staring in shock as Natsune's body slid down the spear and hit the ground. Tenten looked on in horror, her throw not meaning to be vital. Naruko and her teammates were distraught, seeing their teammates body lying still on the ground, Naruko unable to utter a single word out of shock and horror.

The silence stayed for a while, until a loud cackle shattered it. All attention was brought to Natsune, who's arm rose to pull the spear out of the ground and toss it aside. She then rose to her feet, still laughing maniacly, a gaping whole in her head which was, to everyone's shock and amazement, fixing itself. But there appeared to be no blood, or scarring. In fact, it seemed to be miniscule particles rejoining to perfectly reform the area the spear should have impacted.

Stopping her laughing, Natsune meet Tenten's eye with her own vicious slits. "Well that was fun."

"H-how in the..."

"What? This?" Natsune went to poke her right palm, which opened up around her finger, and fixed itself with the same particle effect when she removed it. "A little jutsu I've been working on, but it takes a crap ton of chakra to use it. Plus, if I'd screwed that up, I'd be dead. Basically, it breaks down a selected area of my body to a proteinal level, which I can then manipulate to avoid attacks."

All the Genin and most of the Jounin gaped at the immense skill and control Natsune showed.

The Hokage sighed. 'She is the Kyuubi. What should I really expect? For her to grow accustomed do a human body so easily was a feat in itself.'

"Anyway~... Let us continue." Natsune dropped onto all fours. "Giju Ninpō: Kitsune Shikyaku no Jutsu!"

Tenten took on a more defensive stance as Natsune's appearance grew more feral, her fingernails sharpening and looking like claws, her canines growing more prominent. She was taken by surprise when Natsune shimmered out of her vision, reappearing inches in front of her, a fierce smirk on her face.

Giving Tenten no time to react, Natsune lashed out with her right arm, sending Tenten flying into the air with a powerful uppercut. Natsune then leapt into the air alongside Tenten, delivering a devastating axe kick to the bun haired girl's stomach, effectively knocking her out before she hit the ground.

"Winner! Natsune Kurama!"

Natsune smirked smugly as she rejoined her team. "Piece of ca- OW!"

Naruko had smacked her across the back of her head. "Do you have any idea how scared I was after that stupid stunt you pulled!?"

Natsune sighed. "Sorry. I couldn't help it."

"Just next time tell when you learn something like that." Naruko scolded her partner.

"Sure..."

Looking across the identical pair, Kuro and Sasuke shared a raised eyebrow and a knowing gaze.

Zaku Akumi Vs Hinata Hyuuga

Hinata and Zaku made their way to the centre of the arena, with Hayate beginning the match almost instantly.

"I'll get this over with!" Zaku yelled, raising his left arm, surprising most of Team Seven, as the last time they saw the Sound nin he had two deep gouges in both of his shoulder blade, which appeared to have mostly healed. "Zankuuha!"

The usual blast of air shot forth from the pipe in his palm, Hinata barely dodging the point blank attack. She rolled to her left and rose to her feet, just in time to jump over another blast fired from Zaku's other hand.

"Got you!" Zaku aimed at at Hinata, who was still in midair, unable to dodge.

Or so Zaku thought. The moment he fired his Zankuuha, Hinata begun to spin, releasing chakra from all of her chakra points, forming the Hyuuga clan's defensive technique, Kaiten. She slowly descended towards Zaku while still protected by her Kaiten and, when his attack ended, she released her jutsu and lunged at Zaku, jabbing at various places along his arms with her fingers before jumping back to a safe distance.

Zaku grunted at the pain Hinata's attacks caused, and directed both his palms in her direction. "I'll blow you away!"

"I-I wouldn't advise that..." Hinata told him quietly.

"Like I care what you think! Take this!" Zaku made to attack again, but instead cried in pain at the feeling of his flesh tearing, jets of air escaping from multiple points on his arms.

"I dented the pipes that run through your arms, so the air couldn't exit through the holes in your palms." Hinata informed Zaku as he was carried away on a stretcher. "I-I did warn you..."

"Winner! Hinata Hyuuga!"

"Hinata's gotten rather strong." Sasuke said. "And that damn stammer's almost gone completely."

"Way to go Hinata-chan!" Naruko cheered her friend.

Neji's eyes followed his fellow clan member as she rejoined her team. "To learn the Kaiten on your own. You have grow strong, Hinata-sama. Well done." He smiled earnestly.

Chouji Akamichi Vs Temari

Chouji nervously made his way to the centre of the arena, while Temari jumped down from her spot on the opposite side of the room, obviously confident, her large fan by her side.

The instant Hayate began the match, Chouji dropped into a defensive stance, making Temari snort.

"Getting a tad cautious fatty?"

At those words most of the Genin from the leaf groaned.

"She did not just call Chouji that..." Muttered Shikamaru.

Ino shrugged. "Who knows? He may have a chamce now."

"What did you call MEEE!?" Chouji bellowed, face red with anger, veins protruding from his forehead. "Baika no Jutsu!"

Chouji wove a bird seal and his body expanded, making him look like a large ballz

"Nikudan Sensha!"

He curled himself up into a ball and rolled at a ridiculous speed towards Temari, who grinned smugly and opened her fan, casually sweeping it in front of her, sending a powerful blast of wind at Chouji. The Akamichi was sent hurtling into the air, only for him to come straight back down, slamming into the floor, knocking him out.

"Winner! Temari!"

"Then again, anger may just get the better of him..." Ino contradicted her previous words as she watched her teammate get carried away.

Kiba Inuzuka Vs Kuro Tsukuba

Kuro stood from leaning against the railing to make her way to the arena, but stopped when Kakashi appeared, placing a hand on her head.

"You be careful out there." He warned her. "The seal isn't perfect. The curse mark could still leak out."

Kuro nodded in acknowledgement and left the viewing area.

"Aw man... Why do I have to fight a girl?.." Kiba whined in disappointment. "She's even a midget as well..."

He looked across to where Team Seven were stood but saw no Kuro, then looked to the arena to see Kuro standing there, waiting for him and giving him her usual blank stare, slightly creeping him out.

Kiba shook his head and leapt down to stand opposite Kuro. "Akamaru, you stay out for this one. I can handle this myself."

Akamaru gave a small yap and ran back to sit beside Hinata in the viewing area.

"Well isn't someone getting cocky." Natsune murmured after watching Kiba send his partner back to his team.

"That someone doesn't know how strong Kuro i~s!" Naruko sung playfully.

_'Good Luck'_

"Erm... You too?"

Kuro nodded in satisfaction.

"Begin!"

"I'll make it quick! Tsuga!" Kiba began straight away with one of his clans signature moves, shooting at Kuro in a mad spin.

Kuro easily dodged, rolling to her left and forming two ice Kunai and throwing them at Kiba, who was coming back on the rebound. They pinged off of his technique, not fazing him in the slightest as he headed for Kuro again, who once again dodged. The small mute looked around the room to find a way of using anything to her advantage, and spied the pools of water at each corner of the room. She sprinted to the nearest one, dodging Kiba's Tsuga's as she went, effectively goading him to follow her. As she neared the pool, she leapt onto the water's surface, not moving as Kiba closed in. The Tsuga tore into her, until the Kōri Bushin she had replaced herself with shattered into shards of ice, the Inuzuka breaking through and landing in the water below.

"Gah what the hell!? I'm soaked." Kiba grumbled as he stood in the pool, dripped wet. "Where the hell did you go!?"

He spun to glare at Kuro, who had joined him on the surface of the pool, and then growled in frustration and humiliation when he read what she had quickly written.

_'You smell like wet dog :3'_

"Gah! You're gonna pay for thi-" Kiba's words and lunge were halted as Kuro carefully placed a palm on his chest, freezing the water that dripped from his clothes and skin, rendering him immobile.

"Hook, line and sinker." Sasuke said when Kuro froze Kiba.

"Winner! Kuro Tsukuba!"

Kuro once again nodded with satisfaction and unfroze Kiba, who fell back into the water, then gave him the thumbs up before rejoining her team, Kiba joining his not long after.

"Easy fight huh?" Shino inquired when Kiba stood next to him.

"Shut up Shino..."

Neji Hyuuga Vs Kankuro

"Be wary, Kankuro." Gaara warned his elder brother. "That Hyuuga is strong."

"Ha! They're all a bunch of pushovers." Kankuro leapt down to the centre of the arena, opposite Neji, who had already taken his stance.

"You shouldn't be too cocky." Neji frowned at Kankuro.

"Begin!"

Neji rapidly sprung forward with a Jyuuken, impacting Kankuro in the chest, knocking the air out of him and causing him to slump to the floor. Not convince by such a simple victory however, Neji hastily jumped back, avoiding the bladed hand that had risen up to strike him. The hand was attached to what everyone had thought was Kankuro, until he ripped away the bandages of the bundle on the fake Kankuro's back and stood beside the still downed fake body.

Kankuro made a movement with his fingers and the figure's head rose to show Kankuro's face peeling away to show a wooden puppet, it's jaws clanking loudly. Kankuro then made various movement with his hands, and the puppet rose to it's prosthetic legs.

"This is Crow, my puppet. My puppet armed to the brim with killing weapons!"

At his words and slight hand gestures, Crow launched towards Neji, three of of it's four arms brandishing wrist knives, attempting to stab Neji several times, with the male Hyuuga dodging swiftly. Stepping to the side of one lunge, Neji hastily decapitcated the arm, the arm falling to the floor.

'One down...' Neji counted, refocusing on the other two.

"Neji behind you!"

Neji's eyes widened when he spung round, narrowly blocking the arm he had just detached. 'Of course! He can still control them whether they're connected or not! I'm going to need the byakugan, if only for assurance.'

He placed his right hand in the signature Hyuuga seal. 'Byakugan!'

Veins bulged around his eyes and he gained nearly a full 360 field of vision, enabling him to quickly turn and block the other two arms, gripping the third with his left hand, then splintering it, permanently putting it out of use.

While he was still battling with the other arms, Crow's mouth clacked open, then fired large waves of senbon at Neji, who grunted in frustration as they soared towards him.

'Damn it. I was trying to save this for the thrid exam but I have no choice!' "Kaiten!"

He began to spin rapidly, expelling chakra from each tenketsu in his body to form a rotating shield of chakra, fragmenting the two arms that were in the direct vicinity of the chakra defense and effortlessly deflecting the senbon.

Kankuro grinned. "You're a sitting duck in that thing! I just need to wait for you to stop spinning and knock you out!"

Neji smirked from within the Kaiten. 'He underestimates a Hyuuga. Fool.'

The Kaiten dissipated and Crow thrust forward with it's remaining arm, blade unsheathed. Whilst slowing in his spin, Neji brandished a kunai, timing his strike perfectly to impact Crow's hidden blade, breaking it at it's hilt. He then pushed off the ground at a speed exceeding that of an average Genin, slicing a chakra concentrated arm down between Kankuro and his puppet, breaking the chakra strings connecting them, before turning to Kankuro and impacting him in the stomach with a Jyuuken, sending him flying back.

"Winner! Neji Hyuuga!"

Neji nodded in satisfacation and went to rejoin his team while an unconcious Kankuro was carried away.

Naruko Uzumaki Vs Misumi Tsurugi

"Ah thank god!" Naruko muttered as she stretched her arms over her head. "I was getting impatient!"

After receiving a slap on the back from Natsune and nods from Sasuke and Kuro, the short blonde leapt to the centre of the arena. She was eventually joined by Misumi, who was surrounded in a overconfident and arrogant aura.

"It's a shame you were matched against me shorty." Misumi grinned behind his glasses and mask, looking down at Naruko, trying to look as intimidating as possible. "You have no chance!"

Naruko smiled in mock ignorance. "Good luck!"

"Eh?.."

"Begin!"

"You'll regret not being wary from the beginning kid!" Misumi growled, throwing a punch forward, the attack seeming to easily miss Naruko until his arm stretched and flung back around fr a second swing at the blonde, who jumped back just in time to avoid it.

Naruko had barely any time to react when she landed, dodging a similar attack from his other arm.

'The hell!? What's with his arms!?' Naruto thought rapidly, not expecting such an attack, as she brought her hands together to make a cross with her fingers. 'I should have a back-up just in case.'

Not long after making the hand seal, Misumi's arms wrapped around her rendering her immobile with their vice-like grip.

"Ha! You've lost now brat!" Misumi smirked triumphantly, tightening his hold on Naruko just enough to affect her breathing. "Give up while you have the chance!"

Hayate looked between the two leaf genin. "Naruko is unable to attack! Winne-!"

"Don't you dare say this is over!" Naruko yelled across to Hayate from her jail.

"Brat! I can kill you easily!" Misumi yelled. "If you don't stop now I'll snap you like a stick!"

"Competitor Naruko, I'd highly advise admitting defe-." Hayate was once again cut off by Naruko.

"Not a chance in hell!" Naruko shot back, not breaking eye contact with Misumi, managing to make a single handed tiger seal with her right hand.

"What are you doing!?" Misumi ordered.

Naruko grinned. "You'll find out in a bit."

"I won't let you do anything!" At that proclaimation, Misumi tightened his grip to the extremes, snapping each and ever one of Naruko's vertebrae, the girl falling limp in his arms. "Annoying brat!"

He let go of Naruko's body, expecting it to hit the ground, but instead it disappeared in a poof of smoke. "What the hell!?" Soon after he found his arms trapped by water whips, courtesy of Naruko and one of two shadow clones, the other being the one 'killed' by Misumi.

"I told you you'd find out in a bit. It was a simple substitution jutsu." Naruko told her bewildered opponent, a confident look on her face.

"You tricked me into destroying your clone!"

Naruko shrugged. "This would have happened either way so it doesn't really matter."

Misumi cringed as he began to use his Nan no Kaizo jutsu to loosen his arms again in an attempt to get free.

"Wow, you just made it even easier for me!" Naruko told him, almost thankfully.

She and her clone ran at Misumi, each with an arm captured by their respective Suiben. Once then met at Misumi's body, the real Naruko slid through his legs while the clone jumped over his head, then they both ran a half circle around his body, taking his arms with them. They repeated the process multiple times until Misumi was rendered immobile.

"Winner! Naruko Uzumaki!" Hayate took a side glance at Misumi. "And take Misumi to the hospital and have him untied."

The medics came and stretchered off Misumi, who had been tied into a knot that was a smidgeon on the tight side by Naruko and her clone.

"That was probably one of the best and most amazing ways to win a match! Ever!" Natsune congratulated her partner, Sasuke and Kuro doing the same after.

Shikamaru Nara Vs Dosu Kinuta

"Ah man. This guy's been trouble since the start..." Shikamaru grumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"You'll be fine Shika, just stay out of his sound thingy." Ino instructed confidently, giving her lazy teammate a pat on the back for good luck before he scutched his way to the arena, meeting Dosu in the centre.

The female from the sound team looked on with confidence. 'That boy's a one trick pony, Dosu knows what to do.'

"As long as I stay out of your shadow, I have little to worry about. Isn't that right." Dosu inquired, taking joy in the Nara boy's tense stature at his words.

At Hayate's signal the match started, with both combatants leaping back to avoid each other's possibly early attack. Once Dosu landed, he instantly leapt forward again.

"All I need to do is dodge your shadow!"

Shikamaru grunted. 'I'm going to have to do this more tactically. It's risky but...'

He ran forward to meet Dosu, surprising everyone who knew the lazy Genin. When the distance between them reached only a few metres, Dosu threw a punch with his gauntlet arm, with Shikamaru ducking to the right to avoid it.

Dosu scoffed. "Got you."

Shikamaru ducked further to avoid the brunt of the attack he knew would come and braced himself, grunting as the intense, focused sound waves clipped his right ear, causing it to pop and bleed. Just before the sound ceased, Shikamaru forced himself to moved, spinning to land a kick to Dosu's side, sending the sound Genin back a few metres, while the pineapple head retreated himself, a grin on his face.

"What's with that smile?" Dosu tilted his head creepily. "You landed a hit, big deal. I hit harder, and I'll do it again!"

Dosu went to strike again, but found himself immobile. "What!?"

"That's what I was smiling about." Shikamaru met Dosu's eye. "Kagemane jutsu, complete."

"You idiot Dosu!" The sound Kunoichi yelled from her spot. "You let him get close to you!"

"Dammit..." Dosu growled in frustration.

"Now." Shikamaru raised his left arm so that it crossed his chest, Dosu being forced to do the same, his gauntlet arms coming to rest over his chest. "I'd say we should get rid of that gauntlet, just in case."

With that, Shikamaru reached into his weapons pouch on his right thigh with his right hand and pulled out a kunai with an explosive note attached, with Dosu doing the same, or he would have done had his weapons pouch been on the same leg. Shikamaru threw the kunai, breaking his connection to Dosu when the knife impacted the sound nin's amplifier, so that only Dosu was thrown back by the blast, his gauntlet well and truly destroyed. Quickly after, he regained control of Dosu.

"Well, now that you no longer have that gauntlet, and that you're very close to that wall now, I'll end this in a fun way. For me, anyway." Shikamaru taunted, happy with the result of his hastily thought up strategy.

He turned so that he and Dosu were back to back and walked away, Dosu being forced to do the same, until he was pressed against the wall of the arena, Shikamaru still safely away from any of the walls. Smirking satisfaction, Shikamaru reeled his head back and thrust it forward, causing Dosu to smack his head against the hard concrete. The process was repeated a few times, until Shikamaru released his jutsu and Dosu slumped to the ground unconscious.

"Winner! Shikamaru Nara!"

"Yeah! Way to go Shika!" Ino cheered as her teammate made his way back to his team, Dosu being carried away on a stretcher.

Rock Lee Vs Gaara of the Desert

"Lee! I have come upon some great advice that others would have missed." Gai leaned towards an attentive Lee. "That gourd. It's suspicious..."

The people listening into their discussion allowed their faces to drop in dispair.

"They both idiots..." Natsune murmured, placing her face in a hand.

"I see!" Lee whipped out a notepad and began to avidly make note of this 'priceless' infomation that his sensei had entrusted with him.

"Stop the memo. There's no way you'll be able to use it in battle."

"I see..."

"Alright Lee! Do it!"

"Yes!" Lee leapt over the railings and landed on the arena floor opposite Gaara.

"So Natsune... who'll win?" Naruko asked her red-head look-a-like. "That Gaara seems creepy."

"Ahhh. They both seem strong, even though Lee is an idiot." Natsune observed, looking down at Gaara who had rode his sand down to the arena, meeting Lee in the centre. "Besides, that guy's just an little rat."

Lee stared down Gaara. "To be able to face you this early. I couldn't be happier."

Lee took his stance, but blinked in surprise when not even a moment later a solid mound of sand flew towards hi face. He reacted fast, backhanding the sand apart.

"There's no need to get antsy." Lee retook his stance, concentrating solely on Gaara, who glared back.

"Match begin!" Hayate yelled, then leapt as far away as he could.

Lee speed forward, surprising many people with the level of speed he had, leaping to deliver a high kick to Gaara's face, but he was stopped short as Gaara's sand exploded from the gourd on his back, sweeping round to catch Lee's foot. It then grew to hover over Lee while his foot was stuck. Before it slammed down Lee managed to break free and roll out of the way.

"There's just sand in that gourd!?" Naruko exclaimed in surprise.

'Makes sense, in a way.' Natsune thought to herself, leaning on the railing, proping her head up with her right hand.

Lee rose to his feet and moved to flank Gaara from his right side, dodging under a trail of sand headed for him, throwing a punch forward, only for it to be caught once again by the sand, as well as the kick that followed up. Knowing what would come next Lee broke free and got to a safe distance.

'Damn it!' Lee huffed heavily. 'He's not even moving an inch.'

He moved to throw another punch, but hurriedly leapt back multiple times to avoid the hands of sand that rose from the tiled floor in an attempt to hold him still. Coming to a stop on the fingers of the large statue behind the Hokage and Jounin, meeting the emotionless eyes of Gaara once again.

Attention was briefly ripped away from the heated prelim battle, towards Gai, Lee's sensei.

"Lee! Take them off!" The bowl cut man gave a toothy grin and gave his student the thumbs up.

"Eh?.." Naruko at Gai in confusion. "What does he mean?"

"Hopefully not what I'm thinking..." Sasuke muttered.

"And what is it that you're thinking Sasuke-chan?" Natsune looked across to him, a teasing grin spread across her face. "It wouldn't be pervy would it?"

Sasuke glared at her.

"But... Gai-sensei! That's only for a time when I must protect my precious people, isn't it!?" Lee asked from his perch on the statue.

"It's alright Lee! I'll allow it!"

Lee's face lit up at his sensei's words and he made to remove his leg warmers, revealing weights wrapping around both of his shins.

"Alright!" Lee dropped the weights. "I can move faster now!"

Everyone looked sceptical at Lee.

"Would weights make that much difference?" Naruko asked Natsune beside her."

"I doubt that a bit of weight loss would help him that much..."

The weights hit the floor.

"Okay then!" Natsune stood straight, eyes widened in shock. "Maybe they will."

When the weights hit the ground they caused each caused a large dust cloud to erupt around them, which then clear to show two large craters in the ground, the weights lying in the centre of them.

Gai smirked while everyone else gawked at the incredible mass the weights held. "Lee! Go!"

"Yes!" Lee disappeared from view, reappearing behind Gaara not seconds later, throwing a punch to the side of Gaara's head, the sand only just stopping it.

Gaara was suddenly assaulted with punches and kicks from every angle around him, his sand only just keeping up. However it wasn't long until Lee gained a hit. An overhead kick to the back of Gaara's head sent the boy lurching forward. Straight after, Lee leapt back to a safe distance.

"Now... We are just getting started!" He yelled, grinning.

"Lee! Explode!" Gai shouted from the sidelines.

"Yes!"

He once again disappeared from in front of Gaara, who then turned his head after sensing his presence behind him, but was then sent flying back by a punch that was delivered from his front.

Retaking stance, Lee eyed his opponent, but looked on in confusion when pieces of sand began to fall from Gaara's face.

"Wha..?"

Gaara looked up, his expression changed completely. He now wore an maniacle expression similar to that of Natsune's. Slowly, the sand that had fallen was replaced and Gaara glared angrily at Lee.

"An armour of sand..." Lee murmured to himself.

"Is that all?.."

"Hmm!?" Lee was caught slightly unawares by Gaara's quiet question. 'He is trying to reel me in. What protection... With all that sand covering his body my attacks are meaningless. I have no choice but to deal some severe damage from above the sand's protection...' Lee's bushy eyebrows furrowed as he decided upon his next move. 'The Lotus!'

He looked to his sensei, who gave him a nod. At that, Lee began to undo the bandages on his forearms, then he ran at high speeds in a circle around Gaara.

'With the sand increasing his weight, it will be harder to kick him up. Then I'll have to...'

"Hurry up and come." Gaara muttered.

"As you wish!" Lee appeared before Gaara, delivering a kick from below, impacting his chin and sending him into the air. "It's not over!"

Lee repeated the process of kicking Gaara higher and higher into the air, and at a high enough point he wrapped his bandages around Gaara to restrict his movements and held onto him.

"INITIAL LOTUS!" The two spun towards the ground at ridiculous speeds, Lee leaping away just before impact, skidding to a halt a few metres away, Gaara hitting the ground hard, throwing dust into the air.

"W-wow..." Naruko was in awe at what had just taken place. "Did Lee-san just win?.."

The dust cleared to reveal Gaara lying in a crater of rubble. Lee watch, breathing heavily. Gaara's sand armour fell away.

The eyes of everyone watching widened.

"No way..." Naruko looked down at the empty shell of sand that lay there.

Lee couldn't believe it. He had no time to dwell on the problem as Gaara rose from a pool of sand behind him, cackling madly. Sand exploded from behind Gaara and moved towards Lee, who was this time, helpless, injured from the side effects of the Initial Lotus. The sand threw him back against a wall, where he tried to protect himself from the barrage of sand that followed after. He continued to be hit and pushed around by Gaara's sand, unable to move. He looked up and saw his sensei, smiling down at him with pride. He was filled with strength and determination. Gaara's next attack came speeding towards him, but this time, instead of being hit around, Lee stood and leapt out of the way.

'Sensei is watching and smiling. Just from that I am revived.' Lee took his usual stance. 'Stronger!'

Gaara glared at him. "You are finished here."

"Either way, this will end it!" Lee countered, crossing his arms in front of him and closed his eyes.

"What the hell!?" Natsune suddenly became fully alert.

"Natsune? What's up?" Naruko asked cluelessly.

Natsune ignored her parter and looked at Lee. 'The celestial gates!?'

Pure energy began to form around Lee as he unlocked the third gate. "Gate of life, open!"

His face grew red and the floor around him was destroyed by the pure energy released by the opening of the gate.

"The fourth gate! Harm, open!"

Veins began to protrude from his red skin as his clothes began to ripple and tear. The entire floor of the arena began to crack and be thrown around, throwing small rocky shrapnel outwards.

Lee the vanished from view, not even the highest level jounin keeping up with him. He once again reappeared in front of Gaara, repeating the same moves as before, kicking Gaara into the air. Once he was twenty metres above the broken floor, Lee slammed into Gaara then moving around him as he hit him around like a ragdoll through the air.

"This is the end!" Lee descended towards Gaara. "The fifth gate! Limit, open!"

Lee whacked Gaara towards the ground and fell towards him. At the same time Gaara hit the ground, Lee punched Gaara in the gut with bone breaking power.

"EXTREME LOTUS!"

A shockwave forced everyone to stand their ground or grip onto the railing to stay standing.

Lee fell away from Gaara to a safe distance. Everyone looked on with interest to see the state of Gaara. The dust cleared to reveal Gaara lying on a bed of cushioning sand which was once his gourd.

"He turned his gourd into sand for protection..." Natsune spoke aloud. "Unfortunately for Lee, very clever."

Gaara turned his head to look at Lee, and he raised a hand, his sand following his movements. The sand trapped Lee's left arm and leg, rendering Lee unable to move.

"Sabaku Sōsō..."

Lee cried out in pain when the sand encasing his arm and leg crushed the said appendages, blood seeping through the sand. The sand then looped round to encase Lee's entire body, but was blown away by Gai.

"That's enough." Gaara stood and walked away, his gourd reforming on his back.

"Winner. Gaara!"

Everyone was taken aback by what came next, Lee stood shakily in his stance, eyes shadowed over.

"Lee's going to carry on after all of that!?" Sasuke exclaimed.

"No..." Natsune looked down at Lee as Gai approached him.

"Lee that's enough. You shouldn't be standing n-" He pauses when he realised something.

"Lee's unconscious." Natsune announced from her place on the stands.

"Medic team over hear now!" Hayate ordered as Gai set Lee down on the ground.

Everyone was silent while the medics checked over Lee, until one of the stood to speak to Gai. Team 7 watched in silence as the medic explained to Gai that due to Lee's injuries, he wouldn't be able to be a shinobi again.

"What?.. Why!?" Naruko asked panicked.

Natsune sighed. "What he used then were the celestial gates. When opened they grant the user amazing power, but at a cost. The user's body is almost always damaged beyond repair and sometimes can cause death. That added to the damage Gaara just caused."

Kakashi jumped down to console his friend and get him back upstairs for the final match.

"This is the final match!" Announced Hayate. "Will the last two combatants come to the centre of the arena!"

"Go! Ino-chan!" Naruko cheered as her friend made her way to the arena.

"I going to try my best to follow the trend of beating you sound guys." Ino said cheekily as she reached the centre of the arena.

"Hmph. Don't get too cocky blondy." Kin met Ino in the centre of the arena, and at Hayate's signal to start the match, she jumped back and threw two senbon with bells attached at Ino.

Noticing the jingling, Ino ducked beneath the senbon as they flew over her head, impacting the wall behind her.

"Why are you throwing them with bells?" Ino asked, confused. "Ohh wait, I see! I'll be expecting the bells again, but there won't be any. So then it's stab! Right?"

Kin smirked and drew three more senbon. "There's more to it than that."

Ino prepared to dodge as Kin threw her senbon, also pulling at unseeable wire at the same time, ringing the bells on the senbon she threw before, distracting Ino.

'Crap! It was just the bells!' Ino spun back round just in time to dodge one of the senbon and protecting herself from the other two, taking the hits in her forearms.

"Pay attention Blondy." Kin jeered.

Ino removed the senbon from her arms, but was forced to duck under another set of senbon. Once she stood, she found herself nudging tight strings of ninja wire, each attached to a senbon and one of Kin's fingers.

"The more I throw the more you get stuck between all of the wires." Kin told her. "Specialised, steel wires as well." She added after Ino attempted to slice a way out. "You'd have a hard time cutting through these with a buzzsaw."

"Only one thing for it then." Ino shrugged.

"What do you mean? You barely have any room to move."

"Who says I need to move?"

Ino raised her hands in front of her and made the shape of one of her clans signature jutsus. "Shintenshin no Jutsu!"

With that, Ino slumped to the ground, startling most in the room who didn't know of the Yamanaka's techniques.

"Heh." Kin smirked. "Mind switch successful."

Ino, now in Kin's body, raised her hand. "Proctor, I'd like to forfeit!"

"Umm..." Hayate blinked with surprise. "Sure... Winner! Ino Yamanaka!"

Ino released her jutsu and returned to her own body, Kin's falling to the ground, unconscious. Waking up in her body, Ino sat straight up.

"Ye-heah!" She quickly made her way through the tangle of wires and rejoined her team.

"Alright. With preliminary rounds of the third test have been completed!" Hayate stated. "Can all victors come and line up on the arena floor."

The Genin did so, and Hayate continued. "For you who won the rights to paticipate in the third exam, congratulations."

The Hokage took over, stepping from behind Hayate to address the Genin. "Now I'd like to explain the thrid test. In the main event, the matches will be watched by everyone. You will each fight to represent the power of your countries. Show off all your powers with no reserve. Which is why the finals will be held in one month!"

"Eh? We're not just doing it now?.." Naruko questioned.

"You could call this a break. Time for you to replenish your strength and practise you jutsus. Time for you to get to know you opponents and also youselves." The Hokage indicated to Anko, who pulled out a small box. "In the box Anko's holding are tiny slips of paper, each with a number ranging from one to eleven, one for each of you to pick at random."

The box made it's way around the Genin, each of them taking a number.

Gaara-6

Hinata-3

Ino-9

Kuro-2

Naruko-11

Natsune-5

Neji-4

Sasuke-7

Shikamaru-1

Shino-8

Temari-10

"Alright." The Hokage continued. "Now that you have all drawn numbers, I will reveal to you the final tournament! Ibiki, show them the match arrangements."

Ibiki, the jounin from the first exam held up a clip board holding a sheet of paper, on which was drawn a tounament table, with each of the Genin's names plotted on it according to their number.

Match 1: Kuro Tsukuba Vs Shikamaru Nara

Match 2: Hinata Hyuuga Vs Neji Hyuuga

Match 3: Natsune Kurama Vs Gaara

Match 4: Sasuke Uchiha Vs Shino

Match 5: Ino Yamanaka Vs Temari

"Due to the extra combatant, Naruko Uzumaki will play the winner of match 5!" Ibiki announced.

"Urgh, me and my big mouth..." Sasuke grumbled when he saw his opponent, remembering what he had said earlier.

Shikamaru warily eyed Kuro. 'Hopefully she won't go crazy like in the forest. Still, even if she doesn't I'm sure I'm going to lose...'

Kuro sent him a nod.

"Ah, Neji. Good luck." Hinata gave her branch cousin a polite bow.

"As to you, Hinata-sama." Neji returned the bow.

"Ha!" Natsune slammed a fist into her other palm. "This is going to be the best fight ever!"

She sent her usual maniacle look towards Gaara, who remained nonchalant, but quietly concerned as to why 'mother was so scared by the red-head.

"I have to wait ages for my match..." Naruko whine half sulkily.

The Third regained the Genins' attention. "Now that you know your opponent, train, and make strategies to combat their abilities. That is all. Make your ways back to the village and rest."

With that the Hokage, most of the Jounin and Chuunin shunshined away, leaving the Genin and their Jounin senseis.

"Sooo... What now?" Naruko asked, twiddling her thumbs as she looked towards Kakashi.

"You guys can rest. But just make sure to train." Kakashi told them. "Sasuke I'll be training you personally, me being the only other Shaingan user in Konoha. We'll try to give you more control over that. Kuro you have Haku, correct?"

Kuro nodded.

"Alright, so what about you two?" Kakashi asked Naruko and Natsune.

"Ah, we'll train together. It'll have more benefits." Natsune grinned.

"Well now that's sorted, do whatever. Sasuke meet me at our training ground at nine."

Kakashi poofed away.

* * *

Urgh, I did it! Through all the schoolwork and Halo 4 and helping out TheSBCast on youtube (shameless plug :P)!

Hope it was worth the wait. Not all too sure about the fighty bits but I'll let you judge. For anyone who was a tad sceptical of Natsune's jutsu, please remember that for the moment she will be the superpower of Team 7, plus the Kyuubi, which in my eyes makes her a genius of sorts.

This is a red penguin saying goodbye, and Merry Christmas (bit late), and a happy new year!


End file.
